Remnant's Skybound Striker
by Spiceracksargent001
Summary: My first crack at a "Gamer in (insert location here)" fic. This one is set in Remnant, since it's inspired mainly by The Verdant Gamer, RWBY: Godplayer, and Gaming for Glory. Follows Girouette Zephyr as he joins Ruby and co. in life at Beacon and unraveling a plot to overthrow the four Kingdoms.
1. The Game Begins

**Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, bringing you a new fanfic. Yes, I know, like I don't have enough fanfics that I still have to work on already. They will be updated...eventually. For now, though, welcome to my newest fanfic: Remnant's Skybound Striker! This is a 'The Gamer in Remnant' fic, like The Verdant Gamer, RWBY: Godplayer, and Gaming for Glory, shoutout to Phoenix Champion, Xanothos, and Yoshtar, btw. Now, if you'll excuse me, I still need to work on completing something. ELFI, take over from here.**

 **ELFI: Of course, captain. Spiceracksargent001 does not claim ownership to RWBY, The Gamer, nor any references that will appear in this story. Constructive Criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated, and flamers will experience Multi-Spectrum ECM attacks directed at their comments. Enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Game Begins**

Well, my life has just taken a turn for the bizarre.

Allow me to introduce myself. Name's Girouette Zephyr. Yes, my first name is the same as the awesome mentor character from Megaman ZX who gets killed off early in the game. I typically prefer to be called Giro, since I have played that game, and I felt like honoring one of my favorite video game characters.

Getting back on track with my current situation, though, I'd just gone to bed after binge-watching everything I could of easily my top favorite show right now: RWBY. Next thing I know, I find myself floating in some kind of dark void, literally nothing at all around me except black, as far as the eye can see. As I look around, trying to get my bearings, I notice what looks like some kind of holographic screen pop up in front of me.

 **Welcome, please enter your name:**

I blink, wondering just what's going on, before reaching out to in front of me like I'm about to type up a word document, and sure enough, a holographic keyboard pops up under my fingers. Deciding to question my sanity later, I simply type in my name.

 **Greetings, Girouette Zephyr. You have been chosen to receive the ability known as The Gamer. Perhaps you've heard of it?**

'Oh, that. That's the thing where the person who has it basically has their life transformed into a real-life video game. Read a bit of that webcomic and some fanfics that incorporate the ability, so at least I won't be hopelessly lost.'

 **Not bad. -Your use of memory has increased your Intelligence by 1- Since I'm a good sport, I'll give you a little something extra at the end of this tutorial before sending you to a new, but perhaps familiar, world. Now, let's start things off with the controls. Controls come in two basic types: Hard Commands, and Soft Commands. Hard Commands can only be voice activated, while Soft Commands can be activated by either thought or voice. Please select which format you would like to use. Don't worry too much, commands won't activate if used in the context of a sentence regardless of your choice.**

"Soft," I reply instantly. 'If I'm being sent to a new world, I don't want to have to call out what I want to do 24/7 and look like an escaped insane asylum inmate. Hell, I wouldn't want to do that if I were staying on Earth.'

 **Smart choice. -Your reasoning in choosing Soft Commands has increased your Wisdom by 1- Now, what game would be complete without a menu? Let's bring yours up now. Simply think or say "Menu" to proceed.**

'Menu,' I think, deciding to try out the soft commands. The screen in front of me shifted, and at the end, I was facing a screen with multiple options on it.

 **Status**

 **Skills**

 **Inventory**

 **Quests**

I glance over the options currently available in the menu when another of those little text boxes appears in front of me.

 **Alrighty, now, let's start things off by taking a look at your status. Think or say "Status" to proceed.**

'How about I check my pockets first. Inventory,' I think deciding to see what happens if I disobey a system command. I got another text box.

 **Now, now. Experimenting with the system is encouraged, but for now, let's follow the tutorial, shall we? Think or say "Status" to proceed.**

"Status" I say with a bit of a smirk. The menu screen in front of me bifurcated, and after about a second or two, I had a full status display in front of me.

 **Name: Girouette Zephyr**

 **Level: 1**

 **HP: 60**

 **HPR: 1/min**

 **EP: 100**

 **EPR: 1.1/min**

 **SP: 50**

 **SPR: 2.5/min**

 **STR: 5**

 **ACR: 5**

 **CON: 5**

 **INT: 6**

 **WIS: 6**

 **LCK: 5**

 **Stat Points: 0**

 **Money: 0?**

 **XP: 0/100**

 **Condition: Intrigued**

'Money slot's blank and the currency type's just a question mark, which makes sense, I have no idea where in the heck I'm going. Stats aren't all that great at the moment, though…'

 **Hmm… your stats are looking a little low right now. Let's get started on fixing that, shall we? Here's 5 free stat points. Distribute them however you like.**

"Hmm…" I hum audibly. 'Okay, let's think here. Something tells me the tutorial won't go on until I distribute those stats. I think I know what they each do, but just in case…' "System, can I get a descriptor for what each stat affects?"

 **Of course! -your decision to confirm what each stat does has boosted your WIS by 1- I'm here to help, after all:**

 **STR is your strength. This is your physical strength. Raising this stat increases your weight lifting capabilities, your physical strength, your EP gain on level up, and your ability to block attacks.**

 **ACR is your Acrobatics. This is your agility and hand-eye coordination. Raising this stat boosts your reaction time, accuracy, attack speed, movement speed, and crafting times.**

 **CON is your Constitution. This is your physical durability and stamina. Raising this stat increases your defense against physical attacks, your HP and SP gain on level up, and your HP, EP, and SP regen.**

 **INT is your Intelligence. This is your keenness of mind. Raising this stat increases your damage with Magic attacks, your casting speed, your ability to learn and acquire new skills, and your EP gain on level up.**

 **WIS is your Wisdom. This is the quality of your intellect. Raising this stat increases your defense against magic attacks, your EP regen, and the quality of your reasoning.**

 **LCK is your Luck. This is how much Lady Luck smiles upon you. Raising this stat increases drop chance from defeating enemies, your critical hit chance, and, well, your luck!**

'Oh, free point. Hmm… okay, if I remember right from reading Verdant Gamer, it'd probably be a good idea to put a point into Luck every time I level up, so that chance isn't completely against me. For now, I'll also put two points into Acrobatics since I find it better to speed tank than buffer tank, also because it doesn't matter how hard you hit if you can't hit the broadside of a barn, a point into Strength because that never hurt anyone, and a point into Constitution since my Acrobatics isn't high enough for me to be a proper speed tank at the moment. I'll work on the magic stats later since I don't actually have any spells right now,' I think while applying my stat points.

 **-Your sound stat distributions has increased your WIS by 1-**

"Okay, let's just move on for now because these stats have a ridiculously fast growth rate at the start," I mutter to myself upon receiving that message.

 **-Your understanding of how lower stats level up faster has increased your WIS by 1-**

"Oh, come the funk on!" I shout.

 **Alright, now, I'm pretty sure a Gamer like yourself would already know what most of the stuff in this menu is about. If you feel like getting a refresher course, simply refer to the Help menu that will unlock at the end of the tutorial.**

'Oh, good, I won't have to deal with a needlessly long and tedious tutorial,' I think to myself. Don't get me wrong, I like a good and informative tutorial, but if it goes on too long or is placed in a really dumb location, I'm looking at you, Gen 3 Pokemon games, it just comes across as needlessly tedious.

 **Now, let's head back to the main menu and take a look at your Skill Menu.**

"Menu. Skills." I say as the status menu re-merges and shifts again, and I see a new menu that shows all of my skills.

 **Gamer's Mind - Toggle (ON) - Skill Level: Max**

 **Gamer's Body - Toggle (ON) - Skill Level: Max**

 **This is your skill menu. For now, all you have is the default starting skills that come with the power, but don't worry: you'll be getting all kinds of skills in the coming days.**

'Alright, let's see if I remember this right, Gamer's Body will make my body like that of a video game character, meaning damage won't affect me unless I run out of HP, and Gamer's Mind means I can keep my cool under pretty much any conditions, which will definitely be helpful. Don't see Observe, though. Guess I'll have to unlock that.'

 **-Your use of memory and quick deduction of needing to unlock Observe has increased your INT by 1-**

'Nice, keep building those stats.'

 **Now, let's head back to the menu.**

"Menu," I say as the Skill menu shifts back to the main menu and decide to tackle the next menu in the list. "Inventory, if you please." The main menu expanded and bifurcated again, leaving me with… an empty screen.

 **Ooh, how polite. Welcome to your inventory: easy-to-access hammerspace for anything and everything you can horde. Right now, your Inventory's looking a little light. How about we fix that? Please choose one of the following:**

 **A Weapon**

 **A Skill Book**

 **A Cookie**

"Choices… Okay, let's see here, a cookie would be nice, but it's pretty impractical right now, so that leaves the Skill Book and the Weapon," I muse, going over the options in my head. "Oh, decisions, decisions… I think I'll go with the weapon. While I would appreciate a Skill Book, I have no way of knowing what kind of Skill it'd give me, so better to have something more physical than what could be a very situational skill."

After I finish my sentence, an icon showing a pair of sword-type weapon appears in my Inventory.

 **-Your sound logic in choosing a Weapon has increased your WIS by 1-**

I idly shove the pop-up away while reaching into my Inventory and pulling out a pair of short swords. Well, I say short swords, but they were more like daggers than any sword I'd ever seen. They were also rather thick and double-edged.

 **-A special action has created a Skill! As you are no doubt aware, there are two ways to gain Skills: performing special actions, or by using Skill Books. By noting the construction of the two blades and trying to identify them, you have unlocked the Utility Skill: Observe!-**

'Sweet,' I think, reading the pop-up before dismissing it and returning my attention to the blades. 'Observe.'

 **-Pair of Tantō**

 **A pair of dagger-type Japanese short swords. Both tantō are yoroidōshi, or Mail Piercer, with a moroha-zukuri construction, and are a grand total of 10" in length.-**

"A pair of tantō, huh? Not too shabby. Would've preferred something a little longer, but hey, I get two blades instead of one, and both of 'em are designed for armor penetration, so I'm not gonna complain."

 **Also available from your Inventory is the Equip Screen. With this, you can equip weapons, clothes, and armor to yourself straight from your Inventory, without having to constantly pull things out of your hammerspace.**

"Well, guess I won't have to worry about people accidentally walking in on me while I change, then," I muse. "Definitely a plus."

 **You probably know what's next. Time to check out your Quests Screen. Nothing too complex about it, really. The Quest Screen is where you can check up on, and turn in, your Quests.**

"Menu, Quests." I say, the screen shifting again to my Quests Screen.

 **Quests:**

 **Learning the Basics - Status: Ongoing**

 **As I said, nothing too complex about the Quests Screen. To turn in this tutorial quest, look up its info, first. Think or say the Quest's name to continue.**

'Learning the Basics,' I think, causing the screen to shift to show me the quest's info.

 **Learning the Basics - Status: Complete**

 **You've just been given the Acquired Power: The Gamer, and will be sent to a new world, but first, you need to make sure you know how the power works.**

 **Objective: Complete the Tutorial.**

 **Bonus Objectives:**

 **Show prior knowledge of 'The Gamer' or gaming in general - Complete**

 **Disobey a system command - Complete**

"Guess that's everything," I muse. "Submit."

 **Quest Cleared!**

 **Learning the Basics**

 **Rewards: 100 XP**

 **Bonus Rewards: 50 XP, +1 Stat Point(s)**

 **-You've leveled up! Earned 5 Stat Point(s)!-**

 **You're all set! Now, get ready, 'cause the world you're about to enter is one of bloody evolution!**

Before I could fully process that last sentence, a blinding light fills my vision, making me close my eyes and bring a hand up to shield them.

* * *

 **ELFI: First Chapter complete. Spiceracksargent001 would like to thank you in advance for your support of this story, and to notify you that this story will be given priority alongside Armed Meteor. We will also provide the Gamer's stats as of the current time. He will also be using a modified version of the HP/MP/SP boost system and recovery system from Xanothos' RWBY: Godplayer story.  
**

 **HP gain on level up: 5 + (lvl * CON/2) HPR: (HP/100 * CON/10) per minute (minimum of 1/min)**

 **EP gain on level up: 5 + ((Aura lvl * 10) * (STR+INT)/2) EPR: (EP/100 * (CON+WIS)/10) per minute (minimum of 1/min)**

 **SP gain on level up 5 + (lvl * CON/2) SPR: (SP/50 * CON/2) per minute (minimum of 1/min)**

 **Name: Girouette Zephyr**

 **Level: 2**

 **HP: 68**

 **HPR: 1/min**

 **EP: 105**

 **EPR: 1.68/min**

 **SP: 58**

 **SPR: 3.48/min**

 **STR: 6**

 **ACR: 7**

 **CON: 6**

 **INT: 7**

 **WIS: 10**

 **LCK: 6**

 **XP: 50/200**

 **Stat Points: 6**

 **Money: 0?**

 **Status: Normal**

 **Skills:**

 **Toggle Abilities:**

 **Gamer's Mind - Toggle (ON) - LVL: Max**

 **Gamer's Body - Toggle (ON) - LVL: Max**

 **Utility Skills:**

 **Observe - Active/Passive - LVL 1**

 **The Gamer's standard Observation Skill. Active Use allows for a readout of a person/creature/item, with the readout becoming more comprehensive as the skill levels up. Passively grants the Gamer the ability to see people's name, title, and level to within 15 levels above the Gamer's level. Active use costs 1 SP per use. Levels up with Active Use.**


	2. Awakening

**Spice: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, bringing you the next Chapter of Remnant's Skybound Striker. I'd like to start by thanking all 35 of you who've followed my story, and the 28 who've favorited. As a fellow writer of fanfiction, it does my creative mind good to see so many of you are liking my work. Anyways, in this chapter, we see Giro enter Remnant and start his way towards Vale to get himself established, but ends up at a time and place he least expected.**

 **ELFI: The Captain would like to inform you all that he only claims ownership of his Original Character. RWBY and all peoples of Remnant are property of Rooster Teeth, and that, as always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated.**

 **Spice: So, will all that disclaimer stuff out of the way, let's get on with the story, shall we?**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Awakening**

When it was finally safe to open my eyes, I found myself staring up at the sky through the leaf-bearing branches of a tree… while draped across a lower-hanging tree branch like I was a towel or something.

"Come on, Gamer, couldn't you have put me on the ground like a normal person…?" I mutter, more to myself than anything else as I brought myself into a sitting position with my back against the trunk of the tree. It was then that I noticed where I was, prompting me to look around. I was clearly in a forest, since there were trees as far as the eye could see, and what I saw was a vibrant sea of trees with leaves in the various fall colors, predominantly red and red-orange. The ground was also covered in fallen leaves of the same colors. Needless to say, I didn't even try to stop the small smile that made itself known on my face at the rather picturesque sight. "Well I'll be darned. I could get used to a sight like this…"

I must've spent upwards of 10 minutes just admiring the scenery from my perch before I went back to figuring out what to do next. "Alright, I have two options here," I muse, "I can either stay in the tree and get some more familiarity with my new ability, or just jump out of the tree and yolo my way to civilization. Yeah, that's a no-brainer right there. Only an idiot would not take some time to familiarize themselves with their power before trying to find civilization."

 **-Your sound reasoning in staying in a safe location has increased your WIS by 1-**

"Thank you, I don't care," I say while tossing the pop-up aside. Well, I'm all alone, so no need to worry about seeming like I'm crazy at the moment. "Menu, status."

 **[Girouette Zephyr**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **Level: 2**

 **HP: 68**

 **HPR: 1/min**

 **EP: 105**

 **EPR: 1.785/min**

 **SP: 74**

 **SPR: 3.48/min**

 **STR: 6**

 **ACR: 7  
**

 **CON: 6  
**

 **INT: 7  
**

 **WIS: 11  
**

 **LCK: 6**

 **XP: 50/200**

 **Stat Points: 6**

 **Money: 0?**

 **Condition: Normal]**

"Okay, that is ridiculous, can I move my XP and Stat Points closer to my level?" I ask while hovering a finger over to my XP bar before swiping up to just below my level. The Status screen shifted the XP Bar to follow my finger's movement, which made me cheer mentally. No reason to attract attention, even if I am talking to myself atm. 'Yes! I can drag and drop!'

 **-Your experimenting with the Status screen has increased your INT by 1-**

'Go away!' I mentally shout while closing the pop-up before moving Stat Points and Condition to join my XP bar higher up on my status screen. "Alright, now, since I'm here and I leveled up, may as well put in that luck point now before I forget," I muse while applying a stat point each to my ACR and LCK stats. "I'll also throw that free stat point into my acrobatics while I'm at it."

After applying my luck point and free stat point, I tap on my name, and my status screen shifts to a sort of character sheet.

 **[Name: Girouette Zephyr**

 **Nickname: Giro**

 **Race: Faunus - Arctic Fox, American**

 **Gender: Male**

 **Blood Type: O-**

 **Family: Niel Zephyr (Father), Ciel Zephyr (Mother), Diana Zephyr (Sister)]**

It also had a portrait of me, but my mind had blanked when I read what was listed under Race. 'Faunus? As in the sub-species of humans from RWBY that have animal features? I know I'm big on cosplay, but that is just-' My thoughts got cut off since I'd been lifting my hands up to my head to take off that fuzzy headband I'd put on yesterday for my Artic Fox cosplay since I didn't think to take it off before I went to bed prior to becoming The Gamer, but stopped when my hands had wrapped around the fox ears.

Mostly because a shiver had gone up my spine the moment my hands made contact with the ears, which felt a lot softer than they were before. 'Sweet Merciful Arceus on a Unicycle, my cosplay habits just got me turned into a Faunus. Okay, positives? I have a pretty good idea of where I am now, and I'm a fuck mothering Faunus, which means having all the sensory and instinctual benefits thereof. Negatives? I'm now a Faunus, which means I now to get used to being part Arctic Fox, and will most likely have to deal with racist assholes like Cardin on a mostly daily basis.'

Shaking my head, deciding to worry about that later, I turn my attention to my portrait. I have somewhat messy white hair that falls down to my upper back, which my new fox ears blend into remarkably well, now that I think about it (seriously, even I'd have missed them if I didn't already know they were there), and bright, silver eyes (I'd gotten a lot of questions about how my eyes were that color, with a lot of people who aren't family guessing I wear contacts. I don't), and am wearing a light grey t-shirt with blue denim jeans, white socks, and black and white tennis shoes. Oh, I'm also wearing my blue, oval, memory-frame glasses.

"Yeah… I need a new outfit," I muse. New world, new look, after all, and considering I'm about 80% certain I'm on Remnant now, I need an outfit that looks the part.

I shake my head, knowing that my clothes are also something to worry about later, I go back to my status screen and click on "Title", which opens its own sub-menu.

 **[Titles:**

 **Titles grant special benefits based on the title equipped.**

 **Current Title: The Gamer - The starting title of all who obtain The Gamer. Offers no benefits.**

 **Current Locked Titles:**

 **Nutcracker - Effect Locked - strike 25 different enemies in the crotch**

 **Explorer - Effect Locked - Discover 15 Regions/Locations/Landmarks]**

"Okay, I'm so gonna unlock at least one of those two, at least I'll have a special benefit," I say with an amused smirk at having the same first unlockable title as Wes Verdant. I already know what it does, having read The Verdant Gamer, now I just need to unlock it myself. 'Wonder what unlockable titles I'll end up getting… Eh, I'll figure it out as I obtain them. Explorer, though, I don't think I've ever heard of that one, but just based off the name and requirement, I can make a pretty educated guess about what it entails.' "Menu," I say, heading back to the main menu. "What else is there to experiment with…?"

 **Status**

 **Skills**

 **Inventory**

 **Quests**

 **Options**

"Hello there, Options are new," I muse. 'Options.'

 **-Options-**

 **Volume**

 **BGM**

 **Notifications**

 **Help**

"Pfft, I could mute out dull and boring lectures," I snort. "Probably a bad idea, though. BGM."

 **-BGM-**

 **Playlist empty**

 **Set Music**

 **Remove Music**

"Makes sense that the playlist is empty, I haven't set anything yet," I muse before reaching to return to the options menu. "Probably gonna hold off on that until I'm absolutely certain I am where I think I am, though." Once I'm back at the Options menu, I decide to head to the Help menu, since there was something I wanted to check quickly.

 **-Help-**

 **HP**

 **EP**

 **SP**

 **STR**

 **ACR**

 **CON**

 **INT**

 **WIS**

 **LCK**

 **XP**

 **Stat Points**

"EP," I say simply. I'd been wondering what that was since I first opened my status menu during the tutorial.

 **-EP stands for Energy Points. This gauge, the increase of which is determined in part by The Gamer's STR and INT, is used for Aura (tutorial locked), Arts (tutorial locked) and Spells (tutorial locked). The Gamer's Energy Point Regeneration per Minute (EPR) is influenced by The Gamer's CON and WIS.-**

"Okay, so that's what EP does," I muse. "Guess I need to unlock more abilities, then."

 **-Your decision to confirm something you didn't recognize has increased your WIS by 1. Your quick deduction of needing to unlock abilities that consume EP has increased your INT by 1.-**

"Thank you, I don't care," I say, tossing the pop-up aside before closing the menu altogether and standing up on the tree branch. "Well, guess it's time to find civilization."

 **-Quest Created-**

 **Awakening:**

 **You've awoken from the Tutorial to find yourself in a currently unknown world, armed only with a pair of tantō.**

 **Objectives: Find Civilization - 150XP, 300 local currency**

 **Bonus Objectives:**

 **Defeat an attacking enemy - +50XP, +200 local currency**

 **Make a friend - ?**

"Well alright, then," I say, reading through the quest before closing it. "A mystery reward for making a friend out here, guess I'll figure it out if/when I find someone to befriend." I then do a backflip jump out of the tree and land on my feet about half a foot away.

 **-Your form and landing has increased your ACR by 1.-**

'Woot!' I cheer in my head as I look around. 'Oh, eenie, meenie, minie - this way,' I say mentally before just pointing in a random direction as I cut off the whole "eenie, meenie, miney, mo" thing and heading off in said direction at a light jog.

~1 hour, 45 minutes later~

 **-Your consistent jog has increased your CON by 1-**

I blink as I read the pop up after stopping to take a breather, as it were. 'My CON went up from that?' I ask mentally. 'I was honestly expecting a pop-up saying my STR or ACR had gone up.' I then realized why as I put my right hand into a fist and rested it on the opened palm of my left hand. "Right, my CON went up because I wasn't pushing myself. If I want to boost my STR, I need to do a strenuous physical activity for extended periods of time."

 **-Your understanding of the Stat leveling system has increased your INT my 1-**

"Well, that's already getting annoying," I grumble while throwing the pop-up to the side and start walking again before I stop suddenly. Something doesn't feel right.

 **-You've unlocked the Utility Skill: Detect Bloodlust-**

'Well, fudge,' I think to myself while slowly drawing my tantō, looking around cautiously as I start bracing myself for a fight. Sure enough, I hear a low growl behind me, making whirl around to find a sight I was honestly half expecting to see.

The creature standing before me looked like a werewolf with a pelt as black as a starless night sky during a new moon, sharp, white claws tipping its paws and feet, with white, boney protrusions along its arms and back, and a white, bone-like mask covering its face, with two red lines running along the sides and intersecting a set of equally red, glowing eyes. Lining its jaw was a mouthful of razor-sharp, white teeth. It didn't take a genius to know I what I was looking at.

I was currently staring at a Beowulf. A freakin' Beowulf from RWBY. "Well, if that isn't the final nail in the coffin of 'where the heck am I', I don't know what is," I muse as the Beowulf sizes me up. 'Observe.'

 **Stray Beowulf**

 **Lvl: 5**

 **HP: 100**

'A stray. Thank Oum I don't have to deal with a whole pack of 'em: I'd have been shredded,' I think to myself as I tighten my grip on my tantō. 'Granted, it's 3 levels higher than me, but so long as more don't show up, I can handle it.'

Apparently, the Beowulf got tired of waiting and charged at me, prompting me to jump to the side while swinging both of my tantō in a spinning slash that did a grand total of about 48 damage. 'Okay, this could go either fast or slow depending on how dumb this Beowulf is,' I muse as the Creature of Grimm got up and roared in my face. Not it's brightest move, if I'm being honest.

I have a Title to unlock, after all.

I bring my foot up and kick the Beowulf as hard as I can right in the crotch, dealing 20 damage and stunning the beast as it falls to the ground in a whimper as its claws go cover its crotch. Using the opportunity given to me, I quickly get behind the Beowulf. As I go to strike, though, I feel the urge to do something a little… flashy. So, I back up a little and jump towards the Beowulf in a front flip, and I could swear I saw what was either lightning or static electricity coat the blades of my tantō as I bring them down in a vertical slash to the Beowulf's back.

Wait, that attack dealt 150 damage?!

I watch as the Beowulf stands back up shakily, making me swing one of my tantō as hard as I can, removing the Creature of Grimm's head from its shoulders. The now headless Grimm stays standing for about 10 seconds before it collapses to the ground again and starts fading into black smoke.

 **-You've defeated the Stray Beowulf! You've earned 25 XP! Your performance in combat has unlocked new skills! Unlocked the talent skills: Proficiency: Knives, Proficiency: Dual Swords! You've unlocked an Art! Unlocked the Dual Swords Art: Back Slash! Your stylish execution of unlocking your first Art has increased your ACR by 1! You now have 100% confirmation of being located in Remnant, meaning Exploration Benefits have now been activated! You've discovered a new Region: Forest of Forever Fall! You've discovered a new Landmark: Entry Point! Earned 100 XP and 5 AP!-**

'Check those out later. Also, called it on the exploration thing,' I muse, closing the pop-up before noticing some kind of card laying on the ground where there was once a Beowulf as the Grimm finished dissolving. 'Observe,' I think while picking up the card.

 **-50 Lien Card**

 **Lien is the currency of Remnant. It typically comes in electronic card form, making it great for portability. This card contains 50 Lien.-**

'Oh look, monies. Menu, Inventory,' I think, opening my Inventory before slipping the card in, increasing my Money by 50 Lien before I close the menu again and start walking. After about 10 minutes, I'd found myself walking into a rather picturesque clearing with only one other person, who was sitting on a rock. I also got a notification that I'd gotten 75 XP, a level up, and another 2 AP for discovering a Hidden Area - note to self: go over Exploration and AP in the Help Menu at my earliest convenience - identifying this place as Serenity Clearing, but I quickly dismissed it to take in the appearance of the person before me.

It was a young woman, about 17 years of age, with long, raven black hair, a matching pair of black cat ears parting her hair at the top of her head, and a rather light complexion. Her outfit consisted of a white, sleeveless shirt that exposes her midriff and white shorts, with zippers on the front of each leg that may or may not be decorative, that may or may not be connected to the shirt, hard to tell with the black, button-up vest she wore over her shirt. From her shorts to her low-heel black boots I could see she was wearing stockings that started black and faded to purple as they neared her boots, with silver emblems on the outside of the stockings' legs on the black portion that I'm guessing were Belladonna flowers: AKA her personal emblem. She had black ribbons on each arm and a detached, black sleeve with a silver armband overtop it on her left arm. Connected to a magnetic clamp was a weapon that I easily recognized: Gambol Shroud.

Gambol Shroud at first appears to be a thick, grey cleaver about as long as a long sword, but that was just the sheath. The main part of Gambol Shroud, was the weapon stored in the cleaver-sheath: a Katana capable of mecha-shifting into a Ballistic-Chain-Scythe that had a pistol built into the hand-guard. If I remember right, the specific model of pistol was a Glock.

I knew who I was looking at the moment I'd identified the cat ears, really. This was Blake Belladonna. It also helped that Observe apparently lets me passively see a person's name, title, and level, to some unidentified range above my own level, since I saw this floating over her head:

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **White Fang Operative**

 **Lvl ?**

Right as I noticed that floating above her head, I saw her cat ears perk up and her head turn to regard me, which honestly made me freeze a bit as she looked me up and down with her piercing, amber eyes. 'Well, shift. Now what do I do?'

-Blake POV-

Well, this was unexpected. When I heard footsteps approaching, I'd thought it was Adam come to tell me we'd be heading out. What I got instead was a Faunus, at least, I think he's a Faunus, I've never met before with white hair and silver eyes dressed in civilian clothing and no weapons at all aside from what looks like a pair of yoroidōshi tantō sheathed at his sides. How did he get all the way out here in Forever Fall with so little, and incredibly basic, weaponry? Is he lost? He's also looking a little nervous, so yeah, I'd bet 50 Lien on him being lost.

"Hey," I say, deciding to try snapping the boy, he looks no older than me, actually, out of his trance. Given the way he jumped a little while letting out a confused "Huh?", I think it worked.

"O-oh, uh, h-hi," he stutters nervously.

"Are you lost?" I ask.

"Oh, uh… yeah, kinda lost at the moment," he admits while rubbing the back of his head. "If you could give me directions to the nearest settlement, I'll gladly be on my way."

"Very well, then…" I trail off, hoping to get the guy's name. I'd like to know who I'm helping, after all. Fortunately, it seems he caught on pretty quick.

"Oh, right, where are my manners?" He asks, presumably to himself, while smacking his forehead before shaking his head, then gives me a wave and a small smile. "I'm Girouette Zephyr, but please, call me Giro."

"Blake," I reply, introducing myself before giving him some simple directions to Vale. "If you want to get to Vale easy, just head East until you reach a steep hill overlooking a railway system. Once you do, just follow the tracks South, and you'll reach the Kingdom of Vale without running into very many Grimm." I point in the direction to go first while explaining this. Giro nods for a bit, a thoughtful expression on his face, before he smiles and nods.

"You have my appreciation, Blake," he says while he starts heading in the direction I pointed him in. As he leaves, he looks back to me and waves with a smile. "May fate let our paths cross again!" I shoot a small smirk and a brief goodbye wave to him before letting my expression go neutral again as I look back up at the afternoon sky. He was certainly a curious fellow. It was almost like he recognized me when I told him my name. Oh well, thoughts for another time. I simply continued my cloud-watching for about another hour before I heard footsteps approaching again.

"Blake," the familiar voice of Adam Taurus reaches my ears, bringing me out of my activity. "It's time."

I guess this is it. I lower my head before turning to regard Adam. "Okay," I reply simply before standing up and walking over to him, jumping down from the rock I was sitting on. We share a brief nod and take off East towards the tracks, though I do fall behind a little because of realization slowing my pace.

The directions I'd given Giro to reach Vale sent him to those very same tracks.

I hope he'll be okay. I'm pretty sure he's a Faunus, but I saw no tail, nor signs of claws, so if his second set of ears really are as white as his hair, which I suspect to be the case, Adam could easily mistake him for human…

~30 minutes prior, Giro's POV~

 **-New Area discovered: Forever Fall Railway - Earned 50 XP-**

It took me about 15 minutes of jogging, but I managed to reach a rather steep cliff face. "This must be the railroad that Blake described," I muse, looking down the cliff face to a somewhat elevated set of train tracks. "I've been heading East this whole time, so if my memory serves me right, then South is…" I trail off, going over the directions given to me before looking to my right, "this way." Now with a solid grasp of my internal compass, I start following the tracks South. About half an hour (and another point of CON) into my jog, I start letting my mind wander a bit. 'That was rather nice of Blake to give me directions to Vale. Still, though why did I meet her here? Why is she in Forever Fall in the first place, and why did my Observe skill list her Title as "White Fang Operative"? She left the White Fang after she and Adam attacked a train carrying Dust mined by the SDC, so why-' I cut my thoughts short as I realize what was going on and come to a stop after putting the pieces together. "The Black Trailer," I mutter to myself, then turn to look back along the tracks as I hear the distinct sound of an approaching train. "I think I've done enough jogging for now. Why not take the train now that the option to do so is available?

Backing up a bit while drawing my tantō, I wait for the train to start coming into view before I take off running to the edge of the cliff and hang in mid-air for a bit before I hit the cliff face, sliding down it on my feet, causing red leaves to create a bit of a wake as I go. After running a the math a bit and timing my jump as best I can, I soon leap off of the cliff face towards the train.

Did it really have to be so big that it takes up _two_ sets of train tracks running _parallel_ to each other? I honestly feel like Old Man Schnee is trying to compensate for something with the size of his locomotives.

Doing a front flip as the train passes beneath me and bring my tantō up in a reverse grip. Once I land on the train and inertia starts kicking in, I quickly thrust my blades down and into the train to stabilize myself as I get my footing. Nearly lost my grip, but I somehow managed to hold on.

 **-Your, mostly, seamless boarding of the train has increased your ACR by 1. Your keeping your grip on your tantō against the sudden shifting of momentum and powerful winds has increased your STR by 1.-**

'That was close,' I think before dismissing the pop-up as I finish getting my footing and stand up, pulling my tantō out of the top of the train car I was on as I do so and sheathe them. Looking to the front of the train, I note that I'm pretty far up, which means that Blake and Adam are farther back and probably fighting AK-130s by now. Turning towards the back of the train, I start heading that way, planning on sticking to walking along the tops of the freight cars when I can and simply blitzing through the flatbed cars as they crop up.

-Same time, Blake POV-

Adam had just opened a hatch into one of the freight cars and had jumped in, with me following soon after.

"Looks like we'll be doing this the hard way," Adam says as I land in a crouch, his hand on the hilt of his katana, Wilt, as various laser tripwires vanish and the contents of the train, an entire squad of Atlesian Knight-130s, power up and move to surround us.

"Don't be so dramatic," I reply with a smirk while reaching for the handle of Gambol Shroud as Adam and I stand up, back to back. One of the AKs facing Adam aims its arms at him and transforms them in a set of 5-barrel Gatling Guns.

"Intruder," the robotic voice of the AK demands. "Identify yourself." Adam merely smirks as he stands and takes his hand off of Wilt's hilt and aims Wilt and Blush, the combined name for his weapon, at the robot and fires, sending Wilt colliding hilt-first with the AK's head before dashing forward, grabbing Wilt, and cutting the machine in half before sheathing the blade.

The rest of the Atlesian Knights look to each other before the one directly in front of me shifts its hands into a set of blades and rushes me, the rest following suit. I simply drew Gambol Shroud and began carving through the robots with the katana sheathed. As Adam and I regrouped, I unsheathed the katana of Gambol Shroud and started cutting through the Knights with the sheath and katana held in dual-wield, and knocked one up before Adam hit it with a flying kick, sending it flying through the door, which was blown clean out of the doorway from the impact, and onto the flatbed car behind it. More AKs came to try and subdue Adam and I, but we dealt with them without much hassle, especially after we began using our weapons to their fullest. With the Knights dealt with, we went into the next car, not finding any more Knights, and we knelt next to a crate that Adam opens to inspect, revealing it to be full of Dust crystals.

"Perfect. Move up to the next car," Adam orders while sealing the crate again and standing. "I'll set the charges."

"What about the crew members?" I ask, worried about what Adam had in mind. I joined the White Fang to fight for equality, after all. I didn't want any innocents to get hurt needlessly. Plus, I was still worried about that Giro guy. What if he'd jumped onto the train as well and Adam, upon seeing him, mistook him for a human?

"What about them?" Adam asks coolly, as if he doesn't care if innocents get hurt.

Which he doesn't.

My ears perk up at the sound of mechanical footsteps from above and passing us, making me, and Adam in turn the way we came as an Atlesian Spider Droid walked down the wall and landed on the floor in front of us, taking aim with its four guns.

"Adam…!" I urge as we get ready to fight again.

-Giro's POV-

 **-Your alternating pace heading down the train has increased your STR by 1, and CON by 1-**

"That's nice," I muse while closing the pop-up after I finish climbing up the ladder to the freight car I was now standing on and start heading down it. I stop when I hear something rather loud, like a blast from some sort of big gun. Guess I got to where I wanted to be, and just in time for the finale, too. Dropping to a prone position as I near the end of the freight car, my eyebrows still shoot up at the sight of Blake and another Faunus facing an Atlesian Spider Droid. I looked to the guy beside Blake and 'Observed' him.

 **Adam Taurus**

 **White Fang Lieutenant**

 **Lvl: ?**

 **HP: ?**

 **-Your Observe Skill has leveled up! As you meet the requirements to gain experience with a skill, it will gradually level up. With Observe now at Lvl 2, you can collect more information than before with Active use!-**

'Neat,' I think before dismissing the pop-up and looking to the Spider Droid. 'Observe.'

 **Spider Droid**

 **Atlesian Heavy Security Mech**

 **Lvl: 40**

 **HP: 3,400/4,000**

 **EP: 1,250/1,500**

 **Armor Rating: 10**

'Well, dang, I do _not_ want to tangle with that thing considering my current level,' I think before returning my attention to the two Faunus as Adam basically orders Blake to distract the Spider Droid. I couldn't really hear them all that well, even with my now enhanced sense of hearing, what with the distance between me and them, the train sounds, and the rushing wind, but considering this was the Black Trailer I was going through right now, I didn't need to: Blake would keep the Spider Droid focused on her until it fired a powerful shot her way that Adam would use to fuel his Semblance and destroy the mech in one blow.

Sure enough, Blake charged the Spider Droid while dodging its fire, and once she got close, began using Gambol Shroud's two parts and her Semblance to dance around and slash at the Spider Droid. I was watching the damage tallies, and she wasn't doing much to it. Now, I still don't know Blake's level, since the passive Observe only listed her level as a trio of question marks, but considering she's the same age as Yang and Weiss, I wouldn't put her any higher than about level 20. Still a lot higher than me at the moment, but barely even half the mech's level, and considering how high the thing's armor class was, combined with a level difference of approximately 20, her strongest hits on the thing were only doing a paltry 10 damage. Blake soon backflips until she's beside Adam again, who tells her to move when the Spider Droid combines its arm and shoulder guns into one big cannon, charges up briefly, then fires. The Spider Droid's blast is absorbed by Adam's Semblance through Wilt and Blush, causing him to let out a brief laugh as parts of his attire start to glow red. Let it be known that seeing that glow sent a chill down my spine. The Spider Droid jumps to try and stomp on Adam, but he uses his Aura and the energy absorbed from the Spider Droid's big shot to literally _atomize_ the mech.

With a single sword slice.

That caused the world to turn pure black on red for a moment.

Okay, I know that he's a complete Darwinist sociopath and (soon-to-be) sadistically yandere for Blake, but Adam just earned some badass points right there. That was, like, twice as awesome to watch in person than it was through a screen. I quickly back up a good bit and press as close to the roof of the freight car as I can so that I don't get spotted by Adam while Blake disconnects the car Adam's on (and, subsequently, the cars behind that one) from the rest of the train. After I'd heard the telltale 'click' of the train cars disconnecting and felt the train accelerate, I waited for about another minute while the train picked up speed and began to pull away from the disconnected and (slowly) decelerating train cars. Once the minute was up, I slowly get back to my feet, making sure the increased speed of the train wouldn't throw me off. Once I was upright and sure of my footing, I began to walk back to the edge of the freight car I was on top of and looked down, seeing Blake watch as the train car Adam was on (it was a fair enough distance away that I was sure he couldn't see me) continued to fade into the distance.

"Blake?" I ask from my perch, mixing in enough surprise to make myself sound convincing. Sure enough, the Cat Faunus' ears perk up and she turns to look at me, the surprise I'm showing mirrored by her. I make my way over to the ladder at the end of the train and climb my way down before getting onto the flatbed car she was on and walk over to her at a calm and unalarming pace. "It would seem fate had our paths cross again sooner than either of us anticipated," I quip with a small grin. Blake surprised me with a small giggle at my joke before returning to her typical, stoic demeanor. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Blake retorts. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"When I heard the train approaching, I figured it'd be safer than jogging the rest of the way to Vale," I explain. It wasn't a complete lie, I really did feel like taking the train. "So I hitched a ride by jumping onto the train as it passed by. What about you? Why are you here?"

Blake looked hesitant to tell me, so I decided to strike a bit of a deal. "I'll tell you a secret of mine if you tell me what you were doing here."

Blake still looked pensive, but sighs and nods. "Did you happen to see what happened moments ago?"

"Yeah, you and some guy with bull horns and a mask were fighting a quad-legged mech," I reply. "Why?"

"The guy is Adam Taurus, a lieutenant in the White Fang," Blake explains. "We were here to steal a shipment of Dust that was being sent to Vale via railway from the SDC, but Adam was going to set charges that would destroy the train, and kill all of the crew members. It's been like that ever since the change in leadership. I no longer want to be a part of that, so I disconnected the cars Adam was on from the rest of the train and now, here we are. Now what's this 'secret' you said you would tell me?"

"Hoo boy, where to start…" I mutter before looking at some of the crates and the looking at Blake. "We might want to sit down, this could take a while."

Blake looks at the crates, back to me and nods before walking over to one of the crates and jumps onto it with ease, sitting at the edge over the car. I join her, though I end up only halfway onto the crate when I jump up, resulting what was probably a pretty comedic scene as I start trying to wiggle my way on top of the crate so I could sit down. Looking to Blake, I see the cat Faunus roll her eyes and grab the collar of my shirt as she helps me up. "Thanks," I say after getting myself situated and fixing my shirt. "Alright, I hope you're listening, because I'm not going to repeat myself," I say as I start telling her about how I wound up in Forever Fall and my ability. I left out the part about Remnant being the fictional world of a popular web series where I'm from, I'm not going to tell anyone that until I'm personally trusted by some of the people here on Remnant.

"And the fox ears?" Blake asks, making me look at her in surprise. Fortunately, she seemed to know what I was going to ask before I even said it. "I'll admit, I didn't notice them at first, they blend in rather well with your hair, but they perked up when I got your attention during our first meeting. If you were a human before coming here, how come you're a Faunus now?"

"I have no real idea how it happened, but when I went to bed, I was still wearing this fuzzy headband with fox ears from an arctic fox cosplay I was wearing the day prior. You do know what Cosplay is, right?" I ask, getting a nod from Blake. "Anyway, I'd forgotten to take it off before hitting the sack prior to becoming The Gamer, and somehow, _someway_ , that resulted in me entering Remnant as an Arctic Fox Faunus."

"Right," Blake says skeptically. "How do I know you're not lying?"

"Well, I can't prove everything just yet," I say, trailing off as I grab my tantō and sent them straight to my inventory, the sheathed daggers vanishing into thin air, which got Blake to raise a curious eyebrow, while I 'Observe' her.

 **Blake Belladonna**

 **White Fang Deserter**

 **Lvl 19**

'Huh, my initial estimate for Blake's level was just shy of the actual, and her Title changed,' I note. "And if that doesn't convince you, this definitely will." 'Okay, let's see if this'll work. Create Party.'

 **-You have just created a Party! Persons who enter into a Party with you gain all of the benefits of The Gamer for the duration of their time in the party, including the ability to see one another's Title, Level, and Stats. Please name your party.-**

'Here's the Last Proof,' I say mentally.

 **-You have created the Party: Here's the Last Proof. To invite someone, think or say "Invite, [Person's name]"-**

'Invite, Blake Belladonna,' I finish off while looking to my side at Blake. Sure enough, I see her jump as a holographic screen appears in front of her asking if she'd like to join the Party.

"What the-?!" I hear Blake shout in surprise.

"You can decline the invite for now," I say simply. "I just wanted to show you what proof I have at the moment."

Blake looks at me, looks back at the holographic screen, then back to me and nods before declining the invite, after which I end the Party. We sat in silence for a bit before I decided to ask a question. "So…" I begin, trailing off a bit as I look at my feline companion. "What do you plan to do now?"

"I'll probably try to apply to Beacon," Blake replies after thinking on her response for about a minute. "They're holding an entrance exam sometime next week for applicants who haven't gone to a prep Academy beforehand. What about you?"

"Same," I reply. "Heck, I'd bet my ability that I'd end up getting into Beacon one way or another." 'And that I won't be able to lie to Ozpin,' I mentally add to myself. 'At all.'

"Right, well, at the speed this train is going, we should get to Vale in about half an hour," Blake says. "Might wanna think about a cover story for yourself."

"Good point, though I have no idea where to even start with something like that," I admit, thinking on it for a bit before shrugging. "Eh, I'll think of something. Wanna just sit and chat for now?"

"Sure," Blake replies. We spent the rest of our time on the train making small talk, basic "getting to know each other" stuff.

* * *

 **Spice: And chapter complete. ELFI, take over from here, I have some things I need to do.**

 **ELFI: Of course, Captain. Spiceracksargent001 thanks you in advance for your support of this story, and all of his other works. He would also like to announce that the Reading for Phoenix Champion's The Gamer of Fate will be given proper commencement sometime soon, and that the Phoenix Champion has also passed on the task of doing a Reading for the story The Verdant Gamer to him, the reason being the previous writer tasked with a Reading of The Verdant Gamer, unfortunately, did not meet Phoenix's expectations. The captain would also like to inform you that he will be doing some housecleaning of his works in the immediate future. Certain stories will be taken down to receive updates and re-works for greater quality of reading, with a notice of which stories will be under the effects of this housecleaning being put up before it happens. Farewell for now.**

* * *

 **Edit: fixed a couple little things that I'd noticed while looking over the chapter again. Also, here's Giro's stat spread at the moment and his new skill.**

 **Girouette Zephyr**

 **Title: The Gamer**

 **Level: 3  
**

 **XP: 100/300**

 **Stat Points: 9**

 **HP: 84**

 **HPR: 1/min**

 **EP: 110**

 **EPR: 2.31/min**

 **SP: 74**

 **SPR: 6.66/min**

 **STR: 8  
**

 **ACR: 9  
**

 **CON: 9  
**

 **INT: 10  
**

 **WIS: 12**

 **LCK: 6**

 **AP: 7**

 **Money: 0?**

 **Condition: Normal**

 **Detect Bloodlust - Passive - Lvl 1**

 **A passive detection skill that allows the Gamer to recognize and identify killing intent towards him within a certain distance. The range of Detect Bloodlust is the skill's level x 50'. Levels up by identifying and responding to killing intent. Gains an additional effect after reaching a certain level.**


	3. Vale - pt 1

**Hello people, Spiceracksargent001 here, bringing you the next chapter of Remnant's Skybound Striker! Now originally this was going to be all of the next quest Giro would receive, but I felt like that would be a bit long, so I'm covering the end of his current quest and the first two destinations of the following quest, and tackling the rest of his next Main Story quest in the next chapter. Got it? Good. Let's get started. Oh, also, I don't own RWBY, that honor belongs to those brilliant bastards at Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Vale pt.1: Meeting Coco; Making Weapons**

At some point during the train ride I remembered that I'd leveled up and decided to put in my luck point. I also made another little rule for my level ups: I'm also gonna put a point into my Acrobatics with each level up. Sure, it'll mean I build up unused stat points more slowly, but it also means I'll be faster and more accurate with my attacks in the long run, so I also put 2 points into my ACR since I'd leveled up twice already. I also decided to look up what AP and exploration do for me.

According to what I read from the Help menu, AP, or Ability Points, are something I gain from things like exploring and from using a certain Title (no idea what Title, as the spot where I suspected the Title's name would be was blanked out) and are another way of enhancing my abilities. For every one AP I put into an Art or Skill, it gains a burst of XP, making it easier to level up said Art/Skill. I can also use AP to power myself up by trading in AP for stat points, with the conversion rate being 5 AP for every 1 Stat Point. As for exploration, for every new continent, region, area, etc that I personally visit, I gain a burst of XP and some AP, and with certain locations, aka: Landmarks, I'll always know where that location is no matter where I am once I've discovered it, and the quickest, safest route from wherever I am straight to said landmark. There are also apparently secret areas throughout Remnant that function similarly to Landmarks, but offer incredibly scenic views, are devoid of Grimm no matter the locale, and, upon discovery, typically yield a better XP and AP reward than most other areas.

Either way, after Blake and I had finished chatting, we simply sat in comfortable silence for the remaining 6 minutes of our train ride, simply watching the scenery of Forever Fall go by. At the sixth minute, we saw the walls of Vale coming in from our left, which prompted Blake to jump off of the train. Blinking at her sudden departure, I stayed on the train for about ten seconds longer before deciding to follow her example. It was only _after_ I'd jumped off of the train traveling along an _elevated_ railway that a thought occurred to me: do I take fall damage? Shifting my position mid-air so that my hands would impact the ground first, I ducked into a forward roll not even a second after my hands hit dirt. I rolled a few of times, the momentum of my fall bleeding off in the process, before stopping on my back, panting a little. I idly noted the pop-up that informed me that I'd reduced the impact of my landing to 10 HP in damage, meaning that yes, I do take fall damage, and that I'd gotten another 50 XP and 2AP for discovering the location Vale Walls. I dismissed it as Blake came over and stood over me, looking down in concern. "You okay?" My fellow Faunus asked, a bit of worry in her tone.

"Yeah, gimme a sec," I pant out before accepting the hand Blake had held out to help me up. I was then promptly decked for 30 HP and wound up falling on my butt.

"Are you insane?!" Blake hissed. "You don't even have an Aura yet! Did you not think about how much that jump could've hurt you?"

"Okay, one, ow," I groan before getting back to my feet. "Two, Gamer's Body means pain doesn't affect me all that much unless I die. Three, I'd hit the ground in a roll and only took 10 damage, that damage is now 40 after you decked me, so while I do take fall damage, I am able to reduce the impact by landing accordingly."

Blake blushed, apparently having briefly forgotten about my status as The Gamer in her worry, and looked away sheepishly. "Sorry," she apologizes. "Would you like me to unlock your Aura for you? That way you'll have an extra layer of protection."

I blinked. I'd only just met Blake in person, and now she was offering to unlock my Aura? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Zephyr, you'll only hurt your head more than it already is. I nod and give Blake a small smile. "Sure, and don't worry about decking me, I forgive you."

Blake's cat ears perk towards me and I hear her sigh in relief and nod before walking up to me and then putting a hand on my cheek. "Okay, now, close your eyes."

'Oh, there are _so_ many ways one can interpret this situation,' I quip in my head, but close my eyes regardless so Blake can do her thing. Sure enough, I soon feel Blake's Aura enter my body as it searches out my own Aura and activates it.

" _For it is in passing that we achieve immortality_ ," Blake intones. " _Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance, and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee_." I then feel Blake's Aura leave my body as she removes her hand from my cheek. I quickly catch my fellow Faunus when I open my eyes and see her stumble back a bit. There was a pop-up, but I'd moved it to the side so I could catch Blake before she had a chance to fall.

"You okay?" I ask in concern. Blake takes this chance to regain her balance before letting go of my hand.

"I'm fine," the cat Faunus reassures as she pulls out a black ribbon and starts tying it into a bow atop her head to disguise her cat ears. I don't blame her, to be honest. I mean, she _was_ part of Remnant's most wanted terrorist organization until a little over half an hour ago. "By the way, why is your hand positioned like that?"

I bring the pop-up I'd moved out of my way back into view to properly regard it.

 **-Your Aura has been unlocked! You've obtained the Utility Skill: Aura Mastery!-**

"Pop up, telling me my Aura was unlocked, got a new Skill out of it too," I reply. "Menu. Skills."

I'd ignored Gamer's Body, Gamer's Mind, Observe, and my Proficiency skills to look up my two new Utility skills. Detect Bloodlust was pretty self-explanatory though, so I pretty much just skimmed it before moving onto Aura Mastery.

 **Aura Mastery: Utility Skill - Toggle (On/** **Off** **) - Lvl 1**

 **Your ability to call upon and utilize your Aura. While Active, any damage you take is deducted from your EP before HP, but your EP Regen is halved. Unlocks new benefits as this skill levels up. Levels up by honing your mind and body.**

"Hmm. Well, that's pretty useful," I muse, getting a look of confusion from Blake. "You unlocking my Aura just now, just gave me the skill Aura Mastery. Right now, it basically just lets me turn my Energy Points into a second HP bar, but leveling it up will get me added benefits."

"Oh," Blake utters in understanding before looking to a rather tall ladder leaning against the outside of the wall and makes her way towards it. I follow, deciding it's best not to question the conveniently placed ladder. My head's still ringing a little from Blake's remarkably strong left hook, I'd rather not add to my headache if I can help it.

Almost as soon as I stepped into Vale, I got the following pop-up.

 **Quest Complete!**

 **Awakening:**

 **Now with confirmation that you have arrived on Remnant and have found a friend and confidant in Blake Belladonna, you have made it to the namesake capitol of the Kingdom of Vale.**

 **Reward: 150 XP, +300 Lien**

 **Bonus Objectives Complete:**

 **Defeat an Attacking Enemy - +50 XP, +200 Lien**

 **Make a Friend - +1 Stat Point, +5 AP, +Relationship: Team RWBY**

 **-You've leveled up; gained 5 Stat Points! You've discovered a new region: City of Vale! Gained 100 XP and 6 AP!-**

I let out a low, appreciative whistle at everything I'd gained. "Not bad," I mutter, getting another look of confusion from Blake. "Oh, I just completed the 'quest' I was on," I explain quickly. "Everytime I complete a quest, I gain various rewards, especially if I complete certain bonus objectives, and I also get rewards for exploration. Completing the quest and making it here to Vale netted me a level up, 6 stat points, and a grand total of 11 Ability Points, which I can use to upgrade various skills. Speaking of levelling up, I better put in my Acrobatics and Luck points now before I forget, also gonna put that free stat point into Acrobatics while I'm at it."

"Right, well, I'm gonna get going," Blake says as she starts walking ahead. "Maybe we'll see each other at the entrance exam?"

"Here's hoping," I reply while putting a point into Luck and two into Acrobatics. After that, I decided to sit down at a nearby street bench and start thinking. Alright, I'm gonna need a good number of things if I'm going to be living in the world of Remnant. Better weaponry, for one, some more skills would also be good. Oh, and new clothes. Can't forget about the clothes; the people of Remnant love theming their attire.

 **-Quest Created-**

 **Vale:**

 **You have just arrived in the city of Vale. Now's as good a time as any to get yourself properly situated for living here on Remnant.**

 **Objectives:**

 **Upgrade and name your tantō**

 **Create a Primary Weapon**

 **Purchase Skill Books - 0/5**

 **Obtain some new clothes**

 **?**

 **Rewards: +400 XP, +1 Skillbook, ?**

I give out a small whistle. "A level and a skillbook, nice. A hidden objective and a mystery reward as well, though, I wonder what I'll have to do for that," I muse quietly to myself before pulling my tantō, still in their sheaths, out of my inventory and think about how to make them into a set of mecha-shift weapons worthy of RWBY. It'd have to be something small, since I imagine that these tantō won't have a lot of space inside them, even if they are yoroidōshi, so it'd have to be some sort of handgun… I think I'll go with a pair of pistols that use shotgun shells. That way people will have double reason not to mess with me in close quarters, plus I'll still have the ability to deal damage at a fair distance. That'd make a good, well-rounded secondary for me, now that I think about it. They wouldn't have that much ammo per clip in them, not that pistols typically do, but considering I'd have two of 'em, that shouldn't be as big an issue.

"Those will make good sidearms," I muse to myself as I get up from the bench and start walking, looking for a blacksmith or somewhere to tackle one of the other objectives. "A pair of armor-piercing daggers that are also shotguns. That'd cover secondaries, but that still leaves me with limited range in terms of melee, and not that much damage output beyond close range in the firearms department. I'd need something to properly call my primary weapon if I'm going to be set for living in Remnant."

That was the big question for me: my primary weapon. To be honest, there are any number of weapons that would be suited to how I intend to make my fighting style. I could do a Dust-Action Rapier like Myrtenaster, an Estoc with a parasol for a sheath like what Neo has, any number of variations of a katana, and that's just swords. Then again, considering how I think I wanna fight, I might be better off with something a bit more conducive to Dust spellwork, like a polearm, or something. Oh! A staff! That'd work well, especially if I put in chambers for Dust and a sphere at the top. That way I'll be able to focus Dust into the spells I want to use for extra power. Plus, the ball at the end will make it that much more effective a blunt object, it would have a longer melee range than most other weapons, and I'd probably even have enough space to put in a good rifle for mid-to-long range firepower. It would take some work, but I think-

 _WHAM!_

I got cut off from my thoughts by a door opening and nailing me for 25 hp right between the eyes and left me flat on my butt with a cry of pain while clutching my nose.

 **-You've obtained a new skill: Physical Resistance!-**

'Why am I not surprised?' I think while dismissing the pop-up with a thought before looking up to see the person - sorry, the _girl_ \- who'd opened the door in my face looking down at me in concern.

"Woah, sorry, didn't see you there," the girl says while offering me her hand. "You okay?"

"Yeah, you just caught me with my Aura down," I say while taking the offered hand and being pulled back up to my feet. In one go with minimal, if any, effort on my part, no less. Recovering enough to make the dizziness go away and stand up straight, I was now able to get a good look at the young woman before me.

She was about as tall as me with her high heels, and had fair skin, dark brown hair with wavy locks going down the right side of her head, said locks gradually going from dark brown to a caramel color at the tip, and dark brown eyes hidden behind a set of black aviator sunglasses. Her attire honestly looked like she was either following or trying to start a fashion trend. Possibly both. It consisted of a long, cocoa-colored shirt with a blast of fluff around the base of her neck that left the barest amount of her midriff exposed with a dark brown waist cincher. She also had on a pair of dark brown trousers with ribbons going down both legs, and the aforementioned high-heels, which were a pair of dark brown, leather boots. Wrapping somewhat loosely around her waist was a cocoa-colored belt with bullets going along most of it, connected by a golden belt buckle shaped like a crosshair. She also had a bunch of accessories: a black bracelet and scarf on her right arm and around her neck, respectively, both with black rose decorations, black gloves that left her index fingers exposed, three black, pearl necklaces, a black drape of skirt hanging off the right side of her belt, and a dark brown beret atop her head. She also had a black shoulder bag draped off of her right shoulder, but I wasn't fooled: that was her weapon. The bag itself had a bandolier strap of bullets that held the bag on her shoulder, and in complete defiance of logic, space, and conservation of mass, the bag itself was capable of unfolding into a giant, fuck-mothering _minigun_ capable of mowing down entire hordes of Grimm in a matter of seconds. I didn't need Observe on, even passively, to know who just hit me in the face with a door: it was Coco Adel. Of course, I do still have appearances to keep up, so I offered my hand to Coco for a handshake.

"Girouette Zephyr," I say in introduction. Coco smiled and took my hand, giving me a firm, but thankfully not bone-breaking, handshake.

"Coco Adel, nice to meet you," Coco says before looking me up and down, taking in my attire. "What _are_ you wearing?"

"To be honest, I'm kind of new in Vale, so I was hoping to get some new clothes," I admit. I would've continued, but Coco put a finger to my lips after I'd said 'new clothes', shushing me.

"Say no more, and follow me," Coco insists firmly before opening the door and walking back inside of the building she was leaving. I blink a couple of times before following her into the building without really looking for a sign identifying what the building was.

As it turned out: Coco had just led me into a fashion studio. After checking us in, Coco grabbed my t-shirt's collar and practically dragged me into a fitting room with a full-body mirror on one side. Coco then stood me in the middle of the room.

"Alright, I need to go grab a few things, so in the meantime, I want you to strip down to your underwear and wait in the middle of the room until I get back," Coco instructs, which, quite obviously, got me flustered. She didn't give me time to argue, though, as she'd left not a second after saying that and slammed the door shut. Letting out a sigh, I start sending my current clothing (minus my underwear) into my Inventory, since I would _not_ put it past Coco to start stripping me herself if I wasn't undressed by the time she got back. After I was down to just my underwear, which was a pair of red boxers with a black waistband and stitching, and glasses I simply waited in the middle of the room for Coco to show up. It took her another three minutes after that for the fashionista to return, a near literal mountain of fabric and sewing supplies piled up in her arms. Her Strength stat truly must be near Herculean to be able to lift all that without showing even the slightest bit of discomfort. After setting down and organizing everything, she tucked a pencil between her left ear and her head, then produced a roll of measuring tape and had me hold my arms out to my sides while she took my measurements. Now, I'll be completely honest here: this was embarrassing as all heck. I mean, here I am, in Remnant, getting my measurements taken for new clothes by _Coco Adel_ , hands down my top favorite secondary character from RWBY. The quiet intensity with which she went about getting my measurements honestly made me wonder for a moment if this truly was the same confidant, sassy heavy weapons gal who could beat multiple Beowulves to death with a handbag that turns into a flipping minigun capable of one-shooting Deathstalkers and giant Nevermores. Soon enough Coco finished getting my measurements and wrote them down on a, piece of paper before looking to me. "Is there any particular theme you'd like for your clothing?" she asks, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to the situation at hand.

"I'm thinking something sky themed," I reply.

"I figured you'd go with that sort of answer," Coco says with a smirk and slaps my butt, making me jump, blush, and let out a surprised, fox-like yip, all at once, prompting the heavy weapons girl to laugh a little before walking over to the stuff she'd brought into the room and start turning me into her personal mannequin. We ended up making some small talk while she was making my new clothes, again, basic "getting to know each other" stuff, and I don't know how it got brought up, probably just wasn't watching what I was saying, but I ended up telling Coco about my ability. She seemed skeptical at first, but in the end, seemed to just roll with it; didn't even ask me to show her proof. I'd bet 50 Lien she's just waiting for a more appropriate time and place for _that_ particular conversation. After about an hour, at least, I think it was an hour, could've been longer or shorter than an hour, Coco stood me in front of the mirror to check out the attire she'd made, and to be honest… I was blown away by it.

The attire consisted of a sky blue shirt with sleeves that reached halfway between my wrists and my elbows, white shorts that went to just below my knees, and light grey, steel-toe leather boots with sky blue socks peeking out just beyond the top of the boots. Overtop the shirt was a short, white fur vest, and wrapped around my waist was a light grey belt with slots for bullets wrapping around most of it and a gold buckle in the shape of a sun peeking out from behind a cloud. Rounding out the ensemble were light grey, fingerless gloves that went to my elbows, my glasses (I'd initially protested Coco taking them off until I found that my vision was now much better than before I'd become a Faunus) being replaced by a pair of steely blue, wire-frame aviator sunglasses, and a short hip cape that was a slightly darker shade of grey with a sky blue interior that hung from the right-back of my belt and went down to my knee.

"Well?" Coco asked with a knowing smirk. "What do you think?"

"This is… wow…" I reply, still blown away by the fashionista's handiwork. I then turn to Coco and smile. "Thank you, so much, for this, Miss Adel."

"Please, call me Coco," Coco insists with a smile.

"Alright, Coco," I acquiesce with a smile. "How much do I need to pay for your services?"

"Consider this to be on me as my way of saying sorry for smacking you with the door," Coco says with a wink. "I'll also toss in a spare outfit for in case that one gets torn up a little. Anything else, I will have to charge you for, though."

I couldn't help my smile widening a bit and, deciding on impulse to screw formality, pulled Coco into a hug. I could tell that she was caught off guard by the sudden hug, but she recovered quickly enough and pushes me back to arm's length of her.

"Okay, big guy," Coco says while pushing me away. "You're welcome, but that was a lot more personal a thank you than I was expecting. At least buy me dinner, first."

I blush a little and scratch the back of my head. "Right. Sorry."

"Ah, don't sweat it," Coco says, waving off what had happened. "Your spare outfit should be ready by tomorrow, so just come by here, say, noon tomorrow, and I'll have 'em ready for you."

"Noon tomorrow," I say with a nod and wave as I head out. "See you then, Coco!"

"Catch ya later, handsome!" I hear Coco call out from behind me. Thank Oum she couldn't see me blush at that. Once I was back outside, I shake my head to, hopefully, clear my blush before resuming my search for a blacksmith. As I did, I decided to take the moment to myself to dole out some Stat Points, and here's what my stats are looking like after I'd distributed my stat points:

 **HP: 107**

 **HPR: 1.177/min**

 **EP: 205**

 **EPR: 4.92/min**

 **SP: 97**

 **SPR: 10.67/min**

 **STR: 11**

 **ACR: 15**

 **CON: 11**

 **INT: 14**

 **WIS: 13**

 **LCK: 9**

Satisfied with my choices, I continued my search, soon finding what I'm hoping is the blacksmith's. It had a sign with an anvil and a sword crossed with a spear in the background, so I'm pretty sure it's a blacksmith's, anyway, and my hopes were confirmed as I entered the shop, and it seemed the owner was a Bear Faunus. Grizzly, if I'm looking at the tufts of fur on his arms right.

Anyway, I explained to him what I wanted to do, and he agreed to provide the materials so long as I helped him forge everything. It took, maybe, an hour and a half, but we soon finished. My tantō were still yoroidōshi, but their entire construction was just a little bit thicker, and the blades had actually gained another two inches to them. With a flick of my wrists, the front edge of the blades split down the middle and moved to the side, exposing a gun-barrel on each weapon while the blades rotated forward at a 90 degree angle and slid back a bit. The two halves of the front edge then rotated back and tilted outward a 135 and 30 degree angles respectively, forming a pair of side wings while the tip of the back edge rotated a 180 degrees, then split and shifted to form a v-shaped iron sight as the weapons finished entering their pistol form. Of course, these weren't ordinary pistols. While I couldn't make them shotguns like I'd originally wanted, I _was_ able to make them the next best thing: .357 Magnum pistols, with each one getting 7 shots a clip. I ended up naming them Donner and Blitz, the German words for Thunder and Lightning (the Blacksmith also confirmed in my mind that Atlas is basically Germany, since he commented about me naming my weapons Thunder and Lightning in Atlesian), since the metal strengthening we had to do to make the modifications work made them a dark grey with yellow highlights for Donner and the inverse of that for Blitz. Then, we got to my main weapon: a combination Dust Staff/Rifle that I called Wynn, after the Wind attribute Charmer cards from the YuGiOh card game.

I had used Kid Icarus Uprising's Orb Staff as the basis for the weapon's design, making the weapon look like an intricately made spellcaster's staff and was white primary with gold secondary and a large, glass orb on one end. The Orb's connecting area (which functioned as the stock when the weapon is held as a rifle) was filled with several hidden vials for Dust, with the orb changing color depending on the Dust type being channeled. I don't have any Dust at the moment, though, so the orb was completely transparent right now, though if I were to channel Wind Dust the orb would be the same color as the Orb Staff I'd modeled the weapon after.

Of course, like I mentioned, the weapon also functioned as a rifle, so, flipping the weapon around in my hand, I then shouldered it and looked down the holographic scope (which I'd actually modeled after the Dark Pit Staff, another sniping weapon from Kid Icarus Uprising) and fingered the trigger, though I didn't pull it just yet. The gun itself was a semi-automatic rifle with a barrel length somewhere between a standard rifle and a sniper rifle, allowing it to be used as a sniping weapon while still being capable at mid range. Plus, since it wasn't a Mecha-Shift, all I had to do was flip the weapon around in order to use either function, and the orb on the end also makes an effective bludgeon for melee combat. For ammo, the blacksmith and I crafted the weapon to chamber sniper rounds with a 10-round box magazine.

Lowering the weapon, I then looked to the blacksmith. "Do you have somewhere I can practice using these?" I ask, getting a nod while the blacksmith motions for me to follow. About half an hour later in an empty lot behind his store that he'd made into a practice area for customers looking to try out their weapons before they purchased, I now had three new proficiency skills: Dual Guns (which, after a quick check, I found also applied for using only one sidearm at a time, which would definitely prove helpful), Sniper Rifle (not too surprising, Wynn is basically a mid-range semi-auto sniper), and Javelin (which apparently applies to polearms in general, not just Spears and Javelins). I'd also gotten three new Arts, one of each of the aforementioned weapon types: Early Bird (Dual Guns), Shrapnel (Sniper Rifle), and Arcing Horn (Javelin). I also leveled up my Dual Swords proficiency and learned a new Art for the Weapon type: Stream Edge. After thanking the Blacksmith, and giving him 150 Lien as a thank you for helping me with making my weapons, I then walked out of the store, Donner and Blitz sheathed at my sides and Wynn in hand.

"Okay, that's Weapons and clothes check," I mutter to myself, crossing said items off of my mental checklist of the Quest's objectives. "Now I just need five Skillbooks and to figure out what that mystery objective is…"

* * *

 **And there's the chapter. Also, since I've already given you Giro's most recent stat totals, for this, I'll be giving you guys the descriptors for all of his proficiency Skills and his Arts at the moment.**

 **Proficiency: Knives - Lvl 1 - The Gamer's Skill with Dagger and Knife-type weapons used in a one-handed style. New Arts for weapons covered by this skill are unlocked as the skill gains levels. Gains experience by using a single knife or dagger-type weapon in combat.**

 **Proficiency: Dual Swords - Lvl 2 - The Gamer's Skill with all dual-wielded melee weapons. New Arts for weapons covered by this skill are unlocked as the skill gains levels. Gains experience by using two melee weapons at once in combat. Unlocked Arts: Back Slash, Stream Edge.**

 **Proficiency: Dual Guns - Lvl 1 - The Gamer's skill with sidearms, both single and dual-wielded. New Arts for weapons covered by this skill are unlocked as the skill gains levels. Gains experience by using sidearms in combat. Unlocked Arts: Early Bird**

 **Proficiency: Javelin - Lvl 1 - The Gamer's skill with polearm-type weapons. New Arts for weapons covered by this skill are unlocked as the skill gains levels. Gains experience by using polearms in combat. Unlocked Arts: Arcing Horn**

 **Proficiency: Sniper Rifle - Lvl 1 - The Gamer's skill with Sniper Rifles and other long-range, single-shot weapons, like bows and crossbows. New Arts for weapons covered by this skill are unlocked as the skill gains levels. Gains experience by using high-precision, long-range weapons in combat. Unlocked Arts: Shrapnel**

 **Back Slash - Melee Art (Dual Swords) - Lvl 1 - Coats the weapons in static electricity while executing a powerful diving slash on an opponent for 200% damage. Increases damage dealt by an additional 200% when activated from behind. Costs 50 SP and 25 EP to use.**

 **Stream Edge - Melee Art (Dual Swords) - Lvl 1 - Executes a string of five acrobatic slashing attacks followed by a horizontal slash for 200% damage each hit. Increases power by an additional 100% if triggering a ranged combo. Costs 75 SP and 25 EP to use.**

 **Early Bird - Buff Art (Dual Guns) - Lvl 1 - Focuses the user's Aura into his legs and weapons, enhancing his combat capabilities. Boosts the critical chance and power of weapons and increases evasiveness for 20 seconds. Costs 50 EP to use.**

 **Arcing Horn - Melee Art (Javelin) - Lvl 1 - Coats the weapon's head in lightning while executing a powerful thrusting attack for 250% damage. Increases power by an additional 30% if triggering a Melee Combo. Costs 50 SP and 75 EP to use. EP cost can be negated with Lightning Dust.**

 **Shrapnel - Ranged Art (Sniper Rifle) - Lvl 1 - Infuses the bullet with Aura to fire a powerful shot for 500% damage. Deals an extra 100% damage on Vital Shots. Costs 100 EP to use.**


	4. Vale - pt 2

**Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, bringing you the next chapter of Remnant's Skybound Striker! Yeah, took me long enough to get back around this, right? This was originally going to be longer, but I was up to 20 pages on the Google Doc I was making this on already, so I figured I'd made enough progress to make it a proper chapter. Today, we'll get to see the remaining two objectives of Giro's third quest taken care of, but since it was long enough as is, I'll cover the rewards of the Quest in the next chapter. Sorry for anyone who wanted to see this quest done now, but it was taking long enough as is with my attention span, so I decided "good enough".**

 **ELFI: The Captain does not own RWBY, that honor goes to Rooster Teeth.**

 **Spice: And now, on with the story!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Vale pt. 2: Book Shopping and Revelations**

I was currently just wandering the streets of Vale, looking for a good bookstore. As I did, I let my thoughts wander to something I wasn't sure about using now that I was here on Remnant…

My family may not be out there in the same way Wes Verdant's family is, but we have something that, to my knowledge, only five people in all of Remnant have access to canonically. If the wrong people find out there's someone new with that kind of power at their disposal, they'd see me as a wild card in the deck… one that they'd preferably have removed before I can potentially develop into a problem.

I could probably hide it by using Wind Dust, or only using it with my Aura active so that, to someone not paying particularly close attention, I'm just using Dust or a telekinesis-type Semblance to manipulate the air around me. Either one is only a paper-thin disguise, though, and one of those five aforementioned people might still be able to tell what I'm using…

I shake my head to clear away those thoughts. That's a bridge I'll cross if, or when, I come to it. For now, just focus on your current quest, Zephyr, and find a book store. Besides, what are the chances _any_ of those people can actually sense others that can use magic?

-Same time, Beacon Academy, no POV-

Professor Ozpin had his eyes closed as he focused on channeling his power to expand his senses, trying to locate something that had gotten his attention earlier today.

Ever since earlier that afternoon, he'd been sensing something, or rather, _someone_ , within Vale's walls with a magic signature he didn't recognize.

He didn't know who could possibly have magic like what he was sensing, but he knew one thing for sure: it wasn't a Maiden. The first Wizard was the one who _gave_ the original Maidens their power, after all, and as the latest person to inherit the power of the Wizard, he knew each of the Seasonal Maiden's magic signatures by heart. This person also wasn't an associate of Salem's, those given power by the Queen carry her magic's black signature.

If this person had a magic signature that didn't match either a Maiden, nor one of Salem's puppets, then he wanted to get in touch with this individual as soon as possible. The potential of another magic user on the side of good, especially after the attack that befell the Fall Maiden, would be a great boon for the people of Remnant.

"Professor Ozpin?" the voice of Glynda Goodwitch says as she enters the professor's office, making the wizard look up at his headmistress and closest confidant. "Is something the matter? You said something urgent has just happened."

"A few hours ago, someone special entered Vale's walls," Professor Ozpin explains as he rises from his chair and walks over to the window. "Someone with _magic_."

"What?" Glynda breathes, stunned. "Is it one of the Maidens? Have they heard about what happened to Amber?"

"No, it isn't a Maiden," Ozpin replies, shaking his head. "I know the magic signatures of the Maidens, and the only one presently in the kingdom is Amber's. Besides, you know we've keep the Maidens separate and their identities secret, even from each other, for their own protection. Unless circumstances led to her meeting at least one of them in the past, there's no way they could possibly know about Amber. This person also hasn't been touched by Salem, his magic doesn't bear her dark signature."

"Where is this person now?" Glynda asks. "If he has magic and isn't with _her_ , then we need to make sure he's safe from her grasp as soon as possible."

"According to my senses and access to Vale's internal security network, his most recent stop was at a blacksmith's in town, so chances are he was either repairing, modifying, or obtaining some weaponry. I'm tracking him now, but without knowing his destination, all I can say is that he's currently wandering through Vale."

"Alright, I'll head to town immediately and start looking for him. Do you at least have a picture of what this person looks like?"

"I'll have his picture forwarded to your scroll by the time you reach Vale. I'll also forward you his location when his signature next stops moving."

"Alright. I'm guessing you'd like to meet this person?"

"Considering that our forces are now crippled by Amber's condition?" Ozpin replies, while looking at Glynda from over his shoulder, a serious expression on his face. "That should go without saying, Glynda."

"I suppose so. Well then, I should be off now to find our new spellcaster," Glynda replies before leaving.

Ozpin watches her leave and stared at the elevator door for a full minute after it closed before returning his gaze out the window. "Now then, where are you going, my mysterious friend…?"

-Vale, 1 hour later, Giro's P.O.V.-

It had taken me well over an hour, but I'd eventually managed to find a good bookstore, though I was pleasantly surprised by the large sign that denoted what store it was specifically: Tukson's Book Trade. Knowing that there would almost definitely be some good skill books in there, I walked in, and was pleasantly surprised to see Blake there as well, her nose buried in a book.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun! How may I help you?" A familiar voice says to me from the counter, prompting me to look to the speaker.

He looked to be around his early to mid 30's, if I had to guess his age, with clean cut, black hair, _very_ noticeable sideburns and hazel eyes. His attire consisted of a short-sleeved, burgundy and black zip-up shirt, underneath which was a white undershirt, and when I go up to the counter for my purchase, I know that I'm gonna see he's also wearing forest green pants and a pair of beige boots. The hair on his arms was plainly visible, and I could see his claws tipping each finger, though they were retracted at the moment. I already knew who it was, so I didn't need Observe to know it was Tukson himself, and my mind was already trying to think of ways to keep him from dying.

"Just browsing," I reply. I look at Blake, since she'd looked up from her reading to look at me after hearing my voice, and we share a quick nod before going about our business. I did not miss the way her cheeks were dusted a light pink as she was reading: really does narrows down the list of books she could be reading. I, meanwhile, started browsing around for anything that would be useful for getting started on Dust spellcraft. Took some time, but I found what I was looking for after about 12 minutes.

"Ah, here we are, The Beginner's Guide to Dust Magic: Manipulation of Fire Dust, Manipulation of Ice Dust, Manipulation of Wind Dust, Manipulation of Lightning Dust, and Manipulation of Earth Dust, these will do nicely," I mutter to myself while picking up the books in question. I was tempted to skip Manipulation of Wind Dust, given that my magic made having it redundant, but I ultimately decided to pick it up as well. Who knows? Maybe it'll help me create some new Wind Spells, or give me a way to power up my magic. With my choices made, I went up to the counter to make my purchases.

"Find everything okay?" Tucson asked as I put the books on the counter.

"Yep," I reply before pausing for a bit while Tucson rang up the books, thinking about something I was honestly curious about. "Actually, do you know anything about a series called 'Ninjas of Love'? A friend recommended that I give it a try, seeing as I'll read just about anything if it can catch my interest by the end of the first chapter."

Tukson looked at me curiously, then smirked and tilted his head towards Blake. "She'd be the person you wanna ask about that. Heck, she's reading it right now!" he says before looking to Blake. "Oi! Blake! This guy wants to know about Ninjas of Love! Fill him in while I check the back for a copy!"

Blake looked up, blinking at me before looking at Tukson. "Alright," she says, closing her book and walking over to me, prompting me to turn to her with an amused smirk.

"We meet again, Miss Belladonna," I quip with an amused smirk. "It would seem fate has something planned of us, if this is our third time meeting in a single day."

"So it would seem," Blake replies with a smirk of her own. "So, Tukson said you were curious about Ninjas of Love. What do you want to know?"

Blake and I spent about five minutes talking, Blake answering any questions I had regarding Ninjas of Love to the best of her ability while avoiding spoilers.

"Hm… I see… so it's _that_ kind of book…" I muse, going over everything Blake told me about the series. "Is it well-written?"

"You taking this… surprisingly well…" Blake says, trailing off in uncertainty.

I shrug. "So the series of overt about sexual relationships rather than covert. Nothing wrong with that," I reply. "I'm not gonna condemn someone because of what they do or don't like. Everyone has their own unique tastes, and if someone wants to read something that someone else might not approve of, then more power to 'em. Besides, from what you've told me, I might find some enjoyment in the series, myself."

I swear I saw Blake's cheeks turn a light red before she snapped out of it as Tuckson came back, a copy of Ninjas of Love volume 1 in hand. "Hey, Tukson, put that copy of Ninjas of Love on my tab," Blake says, surprising Tukson and me before I saw the man nod.

"Alright then, Blake," Tukson says before turning to me. "Your total amounts to 200 Lien, kiddo." I nodded and passed him two 100 Lien cards that I "pulled" from my pocket, making Tukson nod and put the cards in his register before putting the five guidebooks in bags, tucking Ninjas of Love in with the Wind Dust book, and handing the bags to me. "Thanks for your business, kiddo. Have a good day!"

"You too, Tukson," I say with a smile before waving to Blake. "See you at the entrance exam, Blake. Assuming we don't bump into each other again before then, anyway."

Blake gave me an amused smirk as she waves back. "We'll see what happens, Giro."

I discreetly sent all five bags to my Inventory for later unpacking after Blake and Tucson looked away, and not 10 seconds after I left the store, I look over to my left and see someone very familiar (to me) walking towards me, while glancing between me and her Scroll.

She was a fair bit taller than me with her heels, and had green eyes, light blonde hair tied back into a bun, with curly locks going down the right side of her face, and a fair, light complexion. Her attire consisted of a white, long-sleeved, pleated top with a teardrop-shaped hole in the front showing off part of her cleavage with a high-waist, black pencil skirt with bronze buttons on it and a black cape that was purple on the inside and tattered at the end to look like an arrow-tipped flame pattern. I couldn't see her personal emblem because her back wasn't to me, but I knew that on the black face of the cape was a bronze tiara emblem above a row of bronze beads. On her feet were black, high-heel boots with bronze buttons and on her legs were a pair of stockings that started black and faded to brown as they travel down her legs. Connected to the outside ankle of her right boot was the telescopic, Dust-Action riding crop that I knew to be her weapon. I shot an 'Observe' at her as she continued walking towards me.

 **[Witch of Beacon]**

 **Glynda Goodwitch**

 **Lvl: 86**

 **HP: 35,650**

 **EP: 120,000**

 **SP: 50,000**

 **Status: Sent by Ozpin to find you**

'Note to self: do _not_ get into a fight with Miss Goodwitch unless I _want_ to get beaten to the other end of Remnant and back,' I thought to myself, staring at Glynda in shock as she came up to me and stopped, closing her scroll and then crossing her arms.

"Young man," Glynda says with a tone that subtly told me 'do not do anything stupid, or there _will_ be consequences', "I'd like you to come with me for a moment. Rest assured, I know you've done nothing wrong at the moment, but there is someone who would like to speak with you."

Before I could respond, I got the following pop-up.

 **-Quest Updated: Follow Miss Goodwitch-**

I gave an internal sigh before nodding and motioning to her with my hand. "Lead the way, Miss…"

"Goodwitch," Miss Goodwitch replies curtly. "Glynda Goodwitch."

"Girouette Zephyr," I reply with a nod as we start walking. "I prefer to be called Giro, though."

Glynda nods, but doesn't reply as she takes the lead in our walk.

After about 10 minutes, we arrive at a police station, of all places, prompting me to look at Glynda. "I'm not in trouble for anything, right?" I ask tentatively.

Glynda turned to look at me and shook her head. "No, you're not in trouble," she reassures, surprisingly warmly, in fact. "It's just that there's someone who would like to speak to you, and the chief of the Vale Police Department has agreed to allow us the use of one of their rooms for these kinds of meetings."

I nod, knowing that she was referring to Ozpin when she said there was "someone who would like to speak to me", and followed her inside. From there, I saw her nod to the person at the front desk, who nodded back and escorted us to one of the interrogation rooms in the back. From there, Glynda excused herself from the room, probably to wait for Ozpin.

-No P.o.V., with Glynda-

Glynda looked through the window into the interrogation room, quietly contemplating the boy inside.

He seemed young - no older than 17 if she had to guess his age. His attire looked like he had an encounter with Miss Adel, something she would be completely unsurprised by, given that his attire in the picture Ozpin had sent her and what he was wearing now were quite different. If she was being honest, his current look was much more appropriate given that his name was rooted in wind and weather. Apart from the staff in his hand, which she guessed was also a rifle of some kind - few people had a weapon that didn't use Dust in some way, or were even multiple weapons in one - she didn't think that he looked like someone capable of using magic.

If she didn't know Ozpin as well as she did, she'd think the man was starting to go senile, believing this boy to be a mage of some type. As it was, she was curious how exactly the boy was able to use magic, no doubt there was a story to be had there.

"Something on your mind, Glynda?" a familiar voice says, bringing the Headmistress of Beacon out of her thoughts as she turns to the speaker, who was Professor Ozpin.

"Just thinking about the boy, Professor," she replies simply. "He seems rather young to be a mage."

"I had the same thought when I first saw his image on the security cameras after sensing his magic signature," Ozpin replies, thoughtful. "At the same time, however, there is no denying that the boy is, indeed, a mage. I've no idea how experienced the boy is, he is rather young still, but I can tell that he has great power inside him, and such a strong affinity for wind, too… most curious."

"Perhaps he's like you back when you were young?" Glynda speculates, looking at her superior. "A Wizard coming into his own?"

"I sincerely doubt that," Ozpin dismisses immediately, cupping his chin with his hand thoughtfully, "but now that I'm this close to him I won't deny that his magic signature bears a similar level of power."

"I suppose the only way to solve this mystery is to speak with the boy, then," Glynda hums, looking at Giro.

"Indeed," Orpington muses. "Now, I think we've kept Mr. Zephyr waiting long enough. Shall we?"

Glynda nods and opens the door to the interrogation room, allowing Ozpin to enter ahead of her.

-during Glynda and Ozpin's discussion, Giro's P.o.V.-

After Glynda had stepped out, I discreetly pulled Ninjas of Love out of my inventory and "observed" it. Here's what I got.

 **Ninjas of Love, vol. 1**

 **The first book of "Ninjas of Love", a romantic action series filled with ninjas and smut. Lots of smut. Details the adventures of a runaway princess in the fictional kingdom on Nihon and her bodyguard, a warrior courtesan ninja trained in a sexual martial art that is designed to fight opponents of the opposite gender.**

 **This is a skill book for that martial art.**

'NoL is a skill book?' I think to myself with a slight blush after reading that description. I can only imagine _exactly_ what that skill would be for… and that's when I noticed a new pop-up, detailing how to use Skill Books.

 **-Skill Books can be used in one of two ways: Active Use, and Passive Use. Active Use teaches the provided skill instantly, but destroys the book in the process. Passive Use requires reading the book, making it take longer to learn the provided skill than active use, but comes with the benefit of letting you keep the book afterwards. Skills acquired in this manner can be leveled up by re-reading the skill book, or by reading subsequent books in its series, and skill books for Dust techniques can even teach additional spells for the element covered by the book through Passive Use, and the same holds true for Martial Arts skill books. Some Skill Books can only be Actively Used. You currently do not have any such Skill Books, but keep this in mind when acquiring more of them.-**

'Huh. Well that's good to know,' I think, dismissing the pop-up and slipping NoL back into my inventory while holding it under the table. As I was debating which of the Beginner's Guide to Dust Manipulation books to read first, the door opened, making me look up to see someone I was honestly expecting to meet the second I saw Professor Goodwitch walking up to me, the aforementioned woman following him in soon after.

He was an older gentleman, only about a hair taller than Goodwitch with her heels on, with tousled, silver hair, brown eyes, and black eyebrows, suggesting that may have been his hair color in his early years. He had a very recognizable cane, but given the way he held it with the shaft under his arm, he obviously didn't need it to walk. Personal preference, maybe?

Focus, Zephyr. Anyway, the man's attire consisted of an unzipped, black suit coat overtop a buttoned up, black vest and a green shirt underneath that. He also has a matching green cowl around his neck ornamented with a small, purple, cross-shaped pin. He also has on black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. The only thing on his face is a set of small, shaded spectacle glasses, and in the hand opposite of the one holding his cane is that oh-so-recognizable coffee mug.

'I already have a good idea of what I'm gonna get, but…' I comment to myself as I "Observed" him.

 **[Beacon Headmaster]**

 **Professor Ozpin**

 **Lvl ?**

 **HP:?**

 **EP:?**

 **SP:?**

 **MP:?**

 **Status: Curious about you**

'Called it!' I mentally cheer to myself before Professor Ozpin addressed me.

"Girouette Zephyr," Ozpin says simply before leaning in to peer over my aviator sunglasses. "You… have silver eyes."

'Is this is how Ruby felt meeting Oz for the first time?' I think to myself while leaning away slightly, more than a little weirded out. "You have me at a disadvantage…?"

"I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy," the man himself says in introduction before sitting down. "I'll be blunt, Mr. Zephyr, the reason I asked Glynda to find you is because you have something that, to my knowledge, is a power that only 5 people in the entire world, myself included, should have access to, with four of them being young women. I take it you already know what I'm referring to, don't you?"

'Well, that escalated quickly,' I quip in my head before giving my reply. "I have an idea, why do you ask?"

"I'd like to hear your story," Ozpin says. "It's clear to me that you're a mage of some kind, but what currently has me baffled is your magic signature. It's unlike any I've felt thus far, so I'm curious where you came from that allowed you to have such a signature, as well as such a strong magical affinity for wind."

"I suppose you're wanting to hear more about my magic than my origin at the moment so I suppose I should start with that," I say before getting to my explanation. "The reason you probably can't recognize my magic signature is because it may well be of a different type altogether than what you're used to."

"How so?" Ozpin asks, intrigued.

-Ozpin's P.O.V.-

Well, this is curious. He was quickly able to deduce that I was, indeed, more curious about his magic than his origins at the moment. I must admit, I'm curious what he meant by saying that his magic may well be a different kind altogether from what I and the Maidens use.

"Well, from what I was taught growing up, all magic is powered by something called Mana, and how one utilizes it comes in two general types: Physical, and Spiritual," Mr. Zephyr explains. "They're capable of the same things, though how they're obtained can vary depending on the type: with two ways to harness Physical Mana, and four ways to harness Spiritual Mana."

"What are these ways?" I ask immediately, curious as to the difference.

"The two types of Gifted, that's the title I was taught growing up for mages, that use Physical Mana are called Will Weavers and Focusers," he explains. "Will Weavers generate the mana needed for their spells through their own force of will. Someone who uses Fire Magic without some sort of connection to a Fire Spirit, for instance, would be a Will Weaver more often than not. Focusers are altogether different: in that they harness magic by gathering and focusing the ambient mana of the world around them. A Druid, a type of mage who dedicates their life to watching over and protecting a forest, for instance, would be a Focuser, since their power, and, indeed, their vitality itself, is directly influenced by the condition of the forest they call home."

"And Spiritual Mana?" I ask, intrigued. From what's been described to me so far, then the Seasonal Maidens and myself use Physical Mana for our magic, and are, quite probably, Will Weavers. If that's the case, then either Mr. Zephyr is one of these Focusers, which I find hard to believe if he says that it may be a different type altogether, or he's a user of Spiritual Mana.

"Spiritual Mana is Mana obtained from the Astral Plains, where the Elemental Spirits reside," Giro explains. "Mages who use this type of mana require a connection to the Spirits in one way or another, and there are four ways to harness this Mana: A Covenant, a Pact, a Contract, and a Bond."

"What are the differences?" I ask, wanting to know more.

"A Contract doesn't actually provide the mage directly with Mana, but allows him or her to summon the contracted Spirit to assist them in battle. This is usually reserved for Elementals, the Spirits that define the various magical elements, or beings of similar power that recognize a person as worthy of their power. Mages who forge Contracts are often referred to as Summoners. A Pact is similar to a Contract in that it's typically reserved for the beings that govern the Natural Elements: referred to as the Spirit Kings, or Queens, in the case of three of the Elements, but works differently. Mages who sign a Pact are known as Elementalists, and can call upon the lesser spirits of their aligned element to use magic in a manner similar to a Focuser. Bonds are where things get a bit more interesting, in that Mages who forge a Bond invite an elemental spirit to inhabit their body and supply them with mana directly. This is, obviously, not without risk, as if the elemental spirit is too powerful for the mage's spirit to handle, they could very well die in the process. Mages who can successfully forge and sustain a Bond are called Spirit Charmers."

"I'm noticing a lack of mention of these 'Covenants'," Glynda comments. "Any particular reason for that?"

"Because Covenants are a rather embarrassing topic for _any_ magic capable being," Giro replies as his cheeks turned a little red, presumably out of some sort of embarrassment. "They require the mage to do "the birds and the bees" with an elemental spirit."

I could feel my face heat up a bit when Mr. Zephyr explained that, and with a quick glance at Glynda, I could tell she'd picked up the same meaning I did. I quickly cleared my throat, eager to move the topic away from Mages who forge Covenants with Spirits. "So, which type of Mage are you?"

"Spirit Charmer," he answers, rather quickly, thankfully. I guess he wasn't lying about Covenants being an embarrassing topic for mages. "I'm a Born Charmer, actually, meaning my Bond was forged with a Bonded Spirit's offspring as I, myself, was being born. A succession like this is usually determined by the spirit's gender, and in the case of my family, who are bonded to a particular kind of Wind Spirit, it can be either parent, though if my case, it was matriarchal."

"So your unique magic signature and affinity for wind comes from being a Spirit Charmer Bonded with a Wind Spirit," I surmise.

"That's the long and short of it, yeah," Giro explains. "There are other little quirks that come with each way of harnessing Spiritual Mana, and for a Spirit Charmer, the main quirks are known as Possession and Flux."

"Interesting, and these do…?" I trail off, prompting him to continue.

"For Possession, I allow the Spirit inside me to take control of my body," Giro explains while placing a hand on his chest, a quick glance at Glynda confirmed that she looked positively mortified that he would willingly let a foreign entity have control over his body. The implications disturbed me a bit, too, but I controlled my reaction since I knew he wouldn't do this under normal circumstances if he didn't trust the Spirit he's Bonded with. "Doing so amplifies my magic power greatly, but my mind takes a back seat in order to allow the Spirit to access its full power until I regain control."

"So it's a sort of berserk state," I summarize. "One where your magic is at its strongest, but you have no control over your actions."

"I suppose that is one way of putting it, yes," Giro replies before getting to the other quirk of a Spirit Charmer. "Anyway, Fluxes are something of a side-effect of being a Spirit Charmer. Because it's an Elemental Spirit living _inside_ me that provides the mana for my magic, my connection to the mana itself is, naturally, unstable. When the stability of the connection to my spirit wavers, such as after a prolonged period of Possession, I automatically enter into a Flux so that the overload of mana doesn't literally burn out my very soul. Spirit Charmers can't access their magic at all during a Flux, and, depending on the host and the spirit, there can also be some… physical changes that come and go with the Flux."

"How long do these Fluxes tend to last?" I inquire. "If it comes at an inopportune time, that could prove rather dangerous to you."

"Well, for every fifteen minutes I'm in Possession, I'll be in Flux for an hour, but Fluxes also happen naturally, and for those, the frequency and duration is an inverse relationship affected by the strength of the Charmer's bond with their Elemental Spirit," Giro explains. "For me, it usually happens once every… six months, I wanna say? Somewhere around that frequency, and I usually stay in Flux for a month on these natural occurrences, with the metaphorical timer until my next Flux resetting after I come out of it, and my most recent flux ended… about three months ago, I wanna say."

I hum in thought at Giro's explanation. Based on what he said, having a Spirit Charmer like him as an ally could very well be a powerful asset against Salem. These month-long Fluxes of his will be something to be wary of, but if he only experiences them once, occasionally twice a year naturally, then his Bond, and his magic by extension, must be truly powerful. The question is, how to approach that topic…

-Giro's P.o.V.-

I sat patiently as Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch silently contemplated everything I told them about my magic. Of course, I hadn't heard from the Spirit inside me for the entire time I've been in Remnant so far, so, as I waited, I decided to reach inward and see if something was wrong. 'Celaeno? Can you hear me?' I ask. Silence followed my question before I hear a soft, feminine groan in my head.

'Giro…? Ugh… what happened…?' the voice asks, sounding groggy, though it does prompt a mental sigh of relief from me.

'Oh, thank goodness, I was starting to get worried,' I sigh mentally. 'You alright, Celaeno? I couldn't hear you for a while there. What happened?'

'I don't know,' Celaeno groans, and giving me a mental image of her Harpy-like body holding a talon-fingered hand to her head. 'Last thing I remember was you going to bed after binge-watching RWBY, and then, something almost forcibly knocks me out…'

Now, let me explain, Celaeno is the Spirit that's resided in my body as my Bonded Spirit since before I was even born. She's a Wind Spirit: specifically an Aerophoenix, which stand among the ranks of the Sylph as Wind Elementals.

Elementals can take whatever form they like outside of the Astral Plains, and for Celaeno, she's liked the looks of the creatures on the Harpie cards from Yu-Gi-Oh ever since she and I were introduced to the series when I was a kid, meaning that she's got a very human-like body with bird-like hands and feet, while she has very long arms that double as her wings. She has a somewhat pale complexion, long, midnight blue hair that flows down to her waist with slanted bangs like a hawk's wing that partially covers her right eye, pointed, elf-like ears, and her hawk-like eyes are rather pleasant shade of green.

Her attire is a skin-tight leather suit that's a light blue in color with a layer over it, that's the same midnight blue as her hair, that can only be described as a strange cross between a backless dress and a one-piece swimsuit with a thin strip that runs down the sides of her hips before expanding at her upper thighs to wrap around her legs down to her ankles like a pair of thigh-high stockings, and is sleeveless to give her wings the full range of motion, and leaving her large, raven-black arm wings on full display.

Did I mention that her outfit was skin-tight already? Because every time I fully enter my mindscape fully to talk with Celaeno, my gaze inevitably goes to her chest, which, while she likes her chest at around a B/C-cup bust size (her own words), the outfit honestly makes them look like her bust is a C-cup at minimum. I'm a guy around the age where he typically starts thinking about a girlfriend, sue me.

'I'll let you take a look through my memories to get caught up, but suffice to say, our life just took a turn for the bizarre,' I say as I try to return my attention to Ozpin and Glynda, but a pop-up got in the way of that.

 **-For reconnecting with your Elemental Spirit, you've unlocked the Unique Ability: Zephyr Family Magecraft! MP Meter Unlocked! Learned the Wind Spell: Gust! Obtained the Overdrive Ability: Possession Mode! Obtained the Passive Ability: Celaeno's Influence!-**

'Nice,' I think, dismissing the pop-up with a thought. Just in time, too, because it seems that Ozpin and Glynda have finished processing everything I told them about my Magic.

"Now then, I'd like to hear a bit more of your story," Ozpin says. "Your name and face don't appear in any of Vale's official registries. I know, because I checked beforehand."

'No lying to him, kiddo,' Celaeno quips distractedly, obviously still looking through my recent memories.

'Thank you, Captain Obvious,' I retort sarcastically to Celaeno with a mental eye roll before returning my attention to Ozpin. "Well, aside from being a Spirit Charmer, my story's a bit of an… unusual one. I'm actually from another world."

"Oh?" Ozpin asks. "And how did you come to find yourself on Remnant?"

"That's the thing, I'm not fully sure," I reply. "One moment, I'm going to bed in my world after a relatively uneventful day, the next, I wake up to find myself in this empty, black void, only to discover that I've become something referred to in my world as "The Gamer". This power then decided to dump me here in Remnant as a Faunus because there was basically _nothing_ going on at home that would allow me to take advantage of it on top of my being a Spirit Charmer."

"Considering what all you've told us about your magic, I suppose that isn't too hard to believe," Glynda acquiesces, "but what do you mean by 'as a Faunus'? Did Faunus not exist in your old world?"

"Not really, no. You two know what Cosplay is, right?" I reply, continuing after getting two nods of confirmation. "Well, I was pretty big into Cosplay back in my old world, and, prior to becoming The Gamer, had gone to bed having forgotten to take off a fuzzy, white, fox-eared headband from an Arctic Fox cosplay I was wearing that day. Somehow, _someway_ , my still wearing that headband resulted in me entering Remnant as an Arctic Fox Faunus."

"An interesting detail, but something I'm sure you'll be fully adapted to soon enough," Ozpin says. "Now, what does this ability of yours entail?"

"Well, any damage I take doesn't actually physically affect me, baring status ailments like bleeding, burns, or poison, instead coming out of an hp bar, or an energy point bar first if I have my Aura active," I explain. "I have a hammerspace inventory, can level up if I accumulate enough experience points from things like defeating enemies, completing quests, and from exploring, and can gain new abilities, either from experimenting with my current abilities, or from using Skill Books."

"Care to demonstrate some of these abilities?" Ozpin asks.

"Sure," I reply, holding up Donner and Bliz, still in their sheathes, before sending them straight to my inventory, getting a hum from Ozpin and a raised eyebrow from Glynda before calling them back. 'Create Party: This is the last thing I can properly demonstrate right now. Invite: Professor Ozpin, Glynda Goodwitch.'

I had to hold back a laugh as I saw both Professors actually jump in surprise as the holographic screens asking if they wanted to join the party appeared in front of them. "You can accept the invite if you want, but it's not mandatory for the demonstration."

Both professors nod their heads before deciding to decline the invite, after which I ended the party. "That's all I can really do for my demonstration, as the party name indicated. I _could_ have shown off using a Skill Book, but I don't have any that demand Active Use, which destroys the book in the process, and I plan to use Skill Books Passively, which let me keep the books both during and after use, unless absolutely required."

Ozpin and Glynda look at each other in silent conversation, and I'm surprised to see Glynda nod before Ozpin looks at me. "How would you like to come to Beacon? With your magic and ability, you could easily become one of the strongest Huntsmen in the history of Remnant."

And there's the offer to join Beacon, as I suspected.

"To be honest, I was planning on taking Beacon's entrance exam anyway, so that's an offer I'll be taking you up on," I reply, getting a smile from both professors and a nod from Ozpin as he pulls out his Scroll and opens it.

"Excellent. Now, I can make some false documents to prove that you actually exist," he explains. "When I put down your ability, or Semblance, as it's called in this world, should I mark it down as a Dimensional Storage ability?"

"Mark it down as a Mimicry Semblance," I reply. "Dimensional Storage would limit me to pulling out weapons and objects. Mimicry, however, would allow me much more leeway with what I can do."

"Very well then," Ozpin says, typing something up, presumably the documents to prove that I'm who I say I am, before sliding me a Scroll. "Now, this Scroll will be your personal data terminal for the immediate future. It functions include working as a phone, camera, personal tablet with CCT access, and will be your card key for entering your dorm in Beacon."

I grab the scroll and pocket it while thanking Ozpin before noticing Glynda lean in and whisper something to Ozpin, her voice low and a hand at the side of her mouth so that even with my now enhanced sense of hearing I can only really make out bits of what she's saying, though Ozpin is looking at her and nodding occasionally. He then lets out a chuckle before looking at me.

"Well, I'm not sure what, exactly, you had planned in terms of acquiring lodging until the entrance exams next week," he begins, amusement clear in his voice, "but if you feel so inclined, my associate, Glynda, has offered that you could stay with her until the semester begins next month."

Well… _that_ was unexpected. I blink in shock and look at Glynda, who surprises me by giving a small smile in my direction. 'What do you think, Celaeno?' I ask, unsure of what to do.

'The offer's certainly one from out of left field, given what we know regarding Goodwitch's character in the show,' she replies, equally dumbstruck at the offer that was just made. 'But if she's offering… I think we should go for it. It's free room and board, _plus_ there's a good chance she'll have some books we can borrow so that we can brush up on everything we'll need to know going in since I have a feeling there'll be a written portion to that entrance exam.'

'Makes sense,' I reply before returning Goodwitch's smile and nodding. "I was probably just gonna book a hotel or something, but if one of Beacon's teachers is offering me room and board until school starts, then I'd have to be some kind of idiot to refuse."

 **-Deciding to consult with Celaeno beforehand and accepting Goodwitch's offer have increased your WIS by 1-**

I give a small, annoyed huff at the sudden pop-up, dismissing it with a flick of my wrist, garnering a look of confusion from Ozpin and Glynda. "Sorry, pop-up saying that one of my stats just went up naturally," I explain quickly, getting nods of understanding from the two before Ozpin stands up.

"Well then, Mr. Zephyr, I believe that's everything for now," he says before picking up his coffee mug. "I suggest that you take the following week to train and study. The entrance exam can be quite… daunting, if you're not properly prepared."

Did he just call me weak? I know it's true right now, but still…

"Come along now, Mr. Zephyr," Glynda says, motioning for me to follow. "My home is a fair ways away from here, so we have a lot of walking ahead of us."

"Uh, right," I reply before getting up and walking over to my soon-to-be Hostess and followed her as we began to walk out of the station.

* * *

 **And there we have it. Like I said, rewards for the quest will be handled next chapter, but at least I finally have this quest out of the way, so, yay for me. I will try to update Reading: The Gamer of Fate next, but who knows when it's me involved. In the meantime, here's what Giro unlocked this chapter. I'll cover Flux in more detail when it actually happens in the story.  
**

 **Zephyr Family Magecraft - Unique Passive - Lv. MAX**

 **Signifies the Gamer to be part of the Zephyr family of Spirit Charmers. Unlocks an MP Meter, which is used for all Wind-based spells, and the Possession Overdrive Ability, at the cost of going into Flux for one month every six months. Increases the power of Wind-element Spells and Arts by 50%.**

 **Gust - Spell - Lv. 1**

 **The starting spell for all Mages who practice Wind Magic. Weak when compared to the other elements, but far more accurate, Wind Magic is especially powerful against airborne targets. A talented Aeromancer can manipulate Gust to create new Wind Spells. Costs 50 MP to use.**

 **Celaeno's Influence - Unique Passive - Lv. MAX**

 **The influence of Celaeno, an Aerophoenix class Elemental, as a Spirit Charmer's bonded Spirit. Grants the Gamer access to the Astral Plains while in a state of meditation and the passive buff Aspect of the Aerophoenix: allowing the Gamer to self-resurrect when killed once every 2 months. Reduces the cost of Wind-based Spells and Arts by 25%**

 **Possession - Overdrive - Lv. MAX**

 **An Overdrive-class ability unique to Spirit Charmers. Reduces the cost of all Arts and Wind magic by 100%, doubles and restores EP, doubles EP and SP Regen, and triples the Gamer's INT, WIS, and ACR. Gamer loses the ability to control their actions while Possession is active (demerit). Gamer suffers the Flux status ailment for a length of time proportional to time spent in Possession, with every 15 minutes of Possession equaling a full hour of Flux (demerit).**


	5. Warnings and the Spirit World

**Spice: Good lord, this is a long time coming. Sorry for the absurd delay on this one, guys, but the college has turned over a new semester, and I'm a lazy-ass procrastinator.**

 **ELFI: The Captain does not own RWBY, it belongs to Rooster Teeth. Girouette, Celaeno are all he owns of this story, for the moment.**

 **Spice: As always, constructive criticism is welcomed, and highly appreciated. Without further ado, on with the story!**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Warnings and the Spirit World**

I gotta admit, for how unexpected it is, I'm actually kinda glad I'll be staying with Miss Goodwitch for the immediate future. It means I'll have one of the best Dust users in Remnant to help me out with my own Dust usage. Well, once I actually get some Dust, anyway. Getting back on track, though, I was greeted by this pop-up as I followed my hostess out of the police station.

 **Quest Completed!**

 **Vale:**

 **You have completed everything on your to-do list of establishing yourself in Vale, and have secured a spot in Beacon's entrance exams.**

 **Rewards: +400XP, Skillbook: Create/Escape ID, +Relationships: Coco Adel, Team CVFY, Beacon Academy**

 **-You've leveled up; gained 5 Stat Points!-**

"Nice," I mutter to myself, drawing Miss Goodwitch's attention as we stop and she looks at me.

"What is it?" she asks, curious.

"Huh?" I utter on reflex before realizing who was with me and answered. "Oh, just finished the Quest I was on and level up in the process. I gain five stat points each level up, which, as the name implies, I can use to upgrade my stats. I've made something of a rule that I always put one point each into my Luck and Acrobatics with each level up, so I should probably do that now before I forget." I was about to do just that when another pop-up interrupted me.

 **-Side Quests have now been unlocked! Side Quests allow you to learn more about the people around you. These are generally not as time-sensitive as the main Quests, but failure to complete them in a timely manner can lead to diminishing rewards, while failing them outright will damage your relationship with the quest giver if applicable.-**

 **Current Side Quests: A Fashionista's Offer, Dust-y Work**

"And apparently completing that Quest I was on unlocked Side Quests, which I will start working on tomorrow," I relay, getting a nod and hum of interest from Glynda before I dismissed the pop-up and put in my Luck and Acrobatics points. After all that was said and done, I resumed following my new hostess to her house.

-1 hour, 45 minutes later-

Nearly two hours, two INT points from Celaeno and I gaining a more complete internal map of Vale, and one CON point, from having to go a bit faster than a casual walk to keep up with Miss Goodwitch, later, and I was treated to the sight of Miss Goodwitch's home, and discovering that her house was a Landmark worth 75XP and 3AP. Considering that it was never seen in the show, I was admittedly curious to see what it looked like.

I noted that it was a rather simple, 2-story house, raised ranch style, with a cobblestone path leading to the front door and a paved driveway leading to a separate garage. It was a rather pleasant cream color with brown and red bricks that made for a nice contrast, and both the lawn and the garden along the front of the house itself were clearly well-kept. As a matter of fact, the main thing I saw about the house that made it stand out amongst its neighbors was the 3-story turret to the back of the house's right side. Rounding out the look of the house was a metal fence like what one might associate with the railing on the stairs of a witch's castle painted the expected black, with a remote operated gate in front of the driveway and a manual one in front of the cobblestone path.

"Woah…" I mutter as I look over Glynda's home, not wanting to miss a single detail.

-Glynda's PoV-

I couldn't keep an amused smirk off my face at how Giro seemed awed at my abode. Being Ozpin's assistant on top of being a Huntress meant I could actually afford the house instead of having to build my own from the ground up. I certainly understand the appeal of such a home, though, and that was actually my backup plan had I not been able to buy this place.

The turret was something I'd added over time to give the house a bit of a personal touch. I recycled some of the materials from the house, but everything else I'd purchased gradually and built it up as I did.

"Come along now, Mr. Zephyr," I say, making the young man blink and look to me as I open the front gate to my house.

"Oh, uh, right," he stutters before jogging up to me and following as I lead the way into my house. The inside was, for the most part, rather spartan, but homely in its decor, which I honestly preferred over the mansions I've seen some of the wealthy and pompous, such as Jacques Schnee, purchase.

"Feel free to look around for a bit, I just need to go get the guest room ready," I say to Giro, getting the young man's attention.

"Alright," he replies with a nod, prompting me to nod as well before I make my way to the stairs and head up them to ready the room he'll be staying in.

-Giro's P.o.V.-

'Hey Celaeno,' I start asking my Bonded Spirit as Miss Goodwitch heads upstairs, 'think I'd be able to turn off Gamer's Mind or Gamer's Body?'

'Possibly,' Celaeno replies curiously, giving me the mental image of her raising an eyebrow. 'They were listed as Toggle Abilities last I saw, and those tend to be on/off things. Why do you ask?'

'Call it idle curiosity,' I reply while pulling up my menu and selecting Skills before tapping Gamer's Body. Doing so, resulted in getting the following pop-up:

 **-WARNING!-**

 **-You are about to turn off Gamer's Body. Doing so will not affect your stat growth and leveling abilities, but Hp damage will now affect your physical capabilities based on the injury. In addition, physical activities and combat will gradually drain your Stamina Points, while strenuous physical activity may also apply minute True Damage depending on the activity (Notice: your Aura and resistances** _ **will not**_ **protect against True Damage). Consume food items for a static HP and SP boost and a longer lasting SP Regen buff to counteract this. Are you sure you wish to proceed?-**

 **-Yes - No-**

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' Celaeno asks, a little worried.

'Oh, doing this is stupid as all get-out,' I admit while tapping "Yes", 'but I'm doing it anyway for two reasons. One: it'll be a self-imposed challenge to go through this without Gamer's Body active unless it's a Boss Fight or I'm up against more than just a small group of Grimm. I'm not suicidal, after all.'

'And the second reason?' Celaeno asks, genuinely curious now.

'So I don't go mad with power,' I reply with a mental shrug. 'I've already got you, I don't want this Gamer stuff going to my head.'

'Fair enough,' Celaeno replies with a mental shrug of her own. 'You gonna do the same with Gamer's Mind?'

'Nah, turning off Gamer's Body is good enough,' I reply. 'Besides, Gamer's Mind'll help me keep my cool in this crazy adventure. Turning it off might mentally cripple me considering that we _both_ know what'll happen if we can't stop certain events.'

'Good point,' Celaeno admits with a mental nod. 'By the way, why are we in Glynda's kitchen?'

At that, I blink and actually take in my surroundings while closing the menu. Sure enough, during my conversation with Celaeno, I'd wandered from the foyer to Miss Goodwitch's kitchenette, which had the usual, standard fare for a kitchen in a house this size.

"Huh, guess I started wandering," I mutter to myself while looking around the kitchen. It was, of course, at that point that my stomach let out a loud growl, making me put my hands on it. "Then again, I haven't eaten at all since before we arrived on Remnant, so food would be nice right about now… I hope Miss Goodwitch keeps some pasta handy."

-No PoV, with Glynda-

Glynda sighs as she finishes making sure that her guest room was fully set and ready for her guest. She's never played hostess before, so she was honestly curious how she would do with Giro living under her roof for a month.

Speaking of Giro, he intrigued her. From how he explained the way a Spirit Charmer works, he and his Bonded Spirit are similar, yet different to the main character in this one book she read a while back.

Similar in that he has two souls living inside of him, different in that, instead of being in conflict, it almost sounded like his two "souls" were closer to symbiotic creatures. She still didn't know what his Spirit was exactly, nor what they were like, but she was sure meeting the elemental being sharing his body would be an interesting experience, for certain. Nodding to herself, she started making her way back towards the foyer to see if Giro was hungry at all.

She was surprised to hear what sounded like rummaging before the kitchen sink started running. Curious to see what her guest was up to, she made her way towards the kitchenette, only to see the Gamer as he put a freshly poured pot of water on the stove and turn it on. Seems he decided to start making food without needing to be prompted. Another amused smirk crept onto her face as Giro turned around and froze in place as he saw her standing there.

-Giro's P.o.V.-

"You know," Glynda starts, amusement clear in her voice and posture as she had caught me getting started on making a pot of pasta, "if you were hungry, Mr. Zephyr, you could have said so. I would've put readying the guest room on the back burner so we could get some food in you."

I, naturally, had the decency to blush as she said that, and rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "Sorry, by the time I thought about food, you had already gone to ready the guest room," I explain. "I didn't want to inconvenience you, so I decided to rummage around so I could make a pot of pasta. I hope you don't mind."

To my relief, Glynda smiles warmly and shakes her head. "It's no bother at all, Mr. Zephyr," she reassures. "In fact, pasta sounds like a good idea right about now. It's been a while since I've had time to make some myself. There's only so many times one can go out to eat before the idea starts to lose its appeal, and Beacon's cafeteria staff rarely serves quality food."

~one meal later~

After we ate and cleaned up from our meal (the latter of which Miss Goodwitch did using her semblance, telekinesis is OP like that), she sat me down to help me get a checklist of things I'd still need for living in Remnant and getting into Beacon. Y'know, clothing (I told her about my run-in with Coco, which seemed to make her check clothes off the list rather quickly, to my initial confusion, then I remembered that it was Coco Adel I mentioned), history books, Dust, ammo, stuff like that.

"Actually," Glynda muses, bringing her attention to me. "How many of these Side Quests do you have now?"

"Two. 'A Fashionista's Offer' and 'Dust-y Work'," I reply, dying a little inside from the pun that is the second Side Quest's name. Judging by her eye roll, Miss Goodwitch though the same as me. I decided to open up my Quests menu and see what each Quest entailed, just to be certain.

 **Side Quest: A Fashionista's Offer**

 **Coco Adel has offered to make you a second set of clothes. This might be a good chance to learn more about her.**

 **Objectives:**

 **\- Meet Coco Adel at the fashion studio at noon.**

 **Bonus Objective: ?**

 **Rewards: Spare Clothes, + Relationships: Coco Adel, Team CVFY**

 **Bonus Reward: + Relationship: Coco Adel, ?**

 **Side Quest: Dust-y Work**

 **Using Dust is standard practice in Remnant, you're going to need to know how to use it, yourself, if you're going to survive here.**

 **Objectives:**

 **\- Obtain 100 grams of Energy Dust and 50 grams each of Burn, Frost, Earth, Wind, and Shock Dust**

 **\- Use your Beginner's Guide to Dust Manipulation Skillbooks (0/5)**

 **\- Make 50 specialty Dust Bullets (Requires a Bullet Press and Craft Skill: Gunsmithing)**

 **\- Craft a Dust-infused article of clothing (Requires Crafting Skills:?, ?)**

 **Rewards: +100 grams of all common Dust types**

Nodding to myself and closing my status menu, I reached a hand into my vest and, from my Inventory, pulled out one of my Beginner's Guides to Dust Manipulation to start reading. Specifically, the Lightning Dust guide. Learning how to use Lightning Dust would probably come in handy, especially with the only Javelin-type Art I have right now being Arcing Horn which, if the name didn't give it away, was an Electricity-based attack.

'This might also give us some insight in adding some unique capabilities into our repertoire for our magic,' I comment to Celaeno, gaining my Spirit's attention.

'How do you figure, kiddo?' Celaeno asks, even as she starts reading the book alongside me.

'Air is the element of freedom,' I reply. 'Imagine if Salem sent someone like Tyrian after us, expecting a simple wind Mage, and we have the ability to use ice and/or electricity with our Aeromancy.'

'He'd be caught flat-footed, something we could capitalize on to drive him back or end him as a threat,' Celaeno realizes, catching onto what I was thinking. 'Hm… we'll have to meditate on this, turn to the winds for insight, but it may be possible…'

'Something for the to-do list, then,' I reply while shoving aside the pop-up telling me that my WIS had gone up, as well as that I'd learned an electric spell. I'll look the spell up later, I just wanted to keep reading for a bit.

~later that night~

After reading the Lightning Dust book for a bit, I decided to crack open the Ice one as well to get the starter spell for that category. Afterwards, Glynda (she said I was free to call her by her first name until I get into Beacon) came by with some Beacon-issued textbooks and gave them to me, saying that it would be a good idea for me to study for the entrance exams as well as expanding my repertoire. I made sure to thank her and did a bit of reading, mostly from the history book to make sure all of my info from the web show was up-to-date with info straight from the world itself, the decision netting me a point in WIS and all of the reading I did got me a net total of four INT points.

Anyways now I was in Glynda's guest room laying down for bed after showering and borrowing some clothes she apparently kept on hand for Beacon initiation if a new student didn't have the foresight to pack sleeping attire for the night. Nothing too fancy, just a plain, white shirt, and black athletic shorts with the Beacon Academy emblem on the left leg. Stretching, I then sat up on the bed and entered a meditative stance, legs crossed, hands on my knees, back straight, head bowed, and eyes closed as I calmed my breathing and focused my mind inward.

When I opened my eyes again, the world had taken in a different look. It looked a lot like the artwork for the Valkyria Chronicles series. The world looked a lot like someone had done a beautiful watercolor painting, the edges of my vision being a stark white the ebbed and surged ever so slightly, kinda like waves on the beach in its motion. I knew what this was even before I looked down to see the feathered arms draped over my shoulders like a blanket, underneath which was open-front, dusty brown robe and shorts that I was most definitely not wearing before. This was the Spirit World, the meta-physical boundary separating the physical world from the Astral Plains.

"Long time no see, Celaeno," I say with a smile as I put my hand on the arm of my Bonded Spirit, the Aerophoenix smiling as well as she rests her head on my shoulder.

"Hello to you as well, my mortal brother," she replies. She then lets go of me as I stand up from the bed and turn to face her, noting not for the first time, that my physical body was still meditating on the bed.

"Right, might as well get started," I say as she and I walk out of Glynda's house.

"Going to try and hunt down Cinder?" Celaeno asks.

"Yep. See if she can't be swayed back into the light," I reply. "I've always been curious of how exactly she wound up in _her_ service, and if it's possible for me to free her from Salem's influence before shit hits the fan."

Celaeno falls silent as she starts going over what little we actually _knew_ about Cinder's backstory. What little we had seen was focused on Cinder assembling her little cadre of Mercury and Emerald and attacking Amber to try (and partially succeed) to steal the Fall Maiden's power, both of which happened well _after_ she was taken in by Salem, nothing at all about what her childhood was like, nor how Salem got her bitch claws on her little Bishop.

~several hours later~

Thanks to how time operated in the Spirit World (an hour here was about 15 minutes in the real world), what had been about seven hours of exploration for Celaeno and I was only about an hour and a half in the physical world. In that time, we'd scoured most of Vale trying to find Cinder's hideout, which had probably gotten me a good amount of INT points, but I presently had no way of knowing that for certain. For whatever reason, The Gamer doesn't actually follow me into the Spirit World, not that I'm complaining. Anyway, at this point, there were only two places in Vale that we had yet to check: the docks, and the warehouse district.

"How about we split up to cover both the docks and the warehouse district?" Celaeno asks, looking to me. "From our current position, we're closer to the warehouse district than the docks, so why don't you tackle the warehouses while I give the docks a fly-by?"

"Works for me," I reply as we share a nod and I watch Celaeno take off into the night sky, heading for the docks. I, meanwhile, look towards where we were going and start making my way to the warehouse district.

-Celaeno's P.o.V.-

As I flew across Vale's skies to search the docks, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I recalled something from Giro's memories that the kid forgot to exclude. "Ah, Cupid's arrow, right between the eyes," I sighs in amusement as his encounter with Coco Adel was replayed in my mind. "I wonder how he's gonna play this out. She always was his top favorite among the secondary characters in RWBY, so it's no surprise that he's already got a crush on the girl."

Soon enough, the lights of the docks catch my eye and I swoop down and come to land on the railing overlooking the docks to see if I can't find any Spirits out late and see if they saw anyone who looked like a certain false Maiden. Spotting a couple of Sky Sirens out for some late-night practice, I knew I had a potential lead. Smiling, I take off from my perch and fly over to join my fellow Wind Spirits, making sure to announce my presence by joining in their song, as is the proper greeting when approaching a practicing Siren.

"Greetings, o eternal wind," One of the two Sirens, a woman now that I can see them from up close, greets me with a flying curtsy. "What brings an Elemental here to these humble docks?"

"The formality is not necessary, fair Sirens, for I come here in the capacity of a Bonded One," I reply, earning looks of surprise from the two before they nod and make to land, the male motioning for me to follow.

"What does your Charmer wish to know?" the male Siren asks after all three of us land on the roof of one of the warehouses.

"My Charmer and I seek the hideout of someone whom he wishes to sway from the honeyed words and hollow promises of the Soulless Witch," I relay, using the term given to Salem by the Spirits of this world. "A woman with eyes like fire, heels of obsidian, and a gown woven of Firestones. As we are coven to the King of the Winds, there are none that hide from us, but my Charmer and I are from another plain stol'n; these winds are foreign to me as of yet."

The two Sirens examine me for a moment before looking away and having a hushed conversation. I look away and focus my attention elsewhere for the moment to let them have their privacy while they obviously discuss whether to reveal what they know or not. After a minute or two, the female clears her throat to reacquire my attention.

"We have seen she whom you seek," the female of the two Sirens starts. "She arrived here in these very docks under a moonless night last month, aboard an unmarked boat with two others. A girl who smelled of the streets, and a boy who smelled of oil, blood, and gunpowder."

"Last we saw the woman, she and her companions had left the Kingdom Walls, their destination unknown," the male continues. "However, because we were the first to report her arrival here to Our King, we are kept in the loop as to her whereabouts and actions. She attacked a woman who smells of the autumn breeze, and has recently coerced the aid of the Fallen Fauna. She has also drafted the aid of a Valean crime lord, and makes her home in the warehouse district while the criminal robs the kingdom of Element Stones in all their forms."

"As a Bonded One, you know your Charmer's mind," the woman then states, eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. "Is his word good that he wishes to turn her from the Witch, or does he intend to betray Our King, as she has betrayed her kind?"

"My Charmer is fair and free as the Zephyr," I reassure. "His word is bond."

"Then may Our King give him blessing," the male says as he and the woman smile. "We shall go inform him of these developments, and inform you later of his decree. Until the winds bid us meet again, Bonded One."

"May the winds guide you to fortune," I reply with a bow before taking off, flying towards the warehouse district to meet up with Giro.

-Same time, Giro's P.o.V.-

After about ten minutes of aimless wandering, I had finally stopped a Pixy that was flitting about nearby and asked for directions to the warehouse district. Now, here I was, in the warehouse district, looking for the one a certain master thief would be holed out in, 'cause where Roman is, Cinder can't be too far at the moment. If school started in a month, then there was still a couple of weeks still before the start of canon. Speaking of, I should probably use that ID Skillbook at some point so I have a steady source of income and experience.

Wait, tangent, getting off track track. Anyways, as I was about to start looking, i heard the beating of wings and a familiar voice calling out to me, prompting me to turn towards the direction the voice was coming from and looking up, prompting me to smile and wave at Celaeno as she swooped down and then we charge a high-five as she lands beside me. "Anything by the docks?" I ask.

"Met a lovely Siren duo who gave me all of the juicy details of Cinder's recent activities," she replies. "Cinder and her little posse showed up last month during the night of a new moon on an unmarked ship. She's already drafted Mr. Pompous, and as of a few hours ago, she's stolen half of Amber's soul and Maiden power, and now has Taurus and his band of fanatics under her thumb as well."

"Damn. That'll make things a little tougher for my plans to turn her from Salem," I swear. "Give a human power with without them earning it first, and they won't part with it easily. Not unless you pin 'em down and strip the power away piece by painful piece, anyway."

"Difficult does not mean impossible, however," Celaeno reassures. "If we can slip into the deepest reaches of Cinder's subconscious, we can learn of how Salem discovered her, and find our means of bringing her back into the light. She's holed up somewhere in this district. If you can tag her now, we can do this one step at a time, work our way towards making Cinder betray the Witch bit by bit."

"Right let's get to searching, then," I reply with a nod. Before we started searching, though, Celaeno held out her hand and gave me a slip of paper with special symbols written across its surface. I smirk as I accept it, knowing this to be a Spirit Tag, special talismans that exist only in the Spirit World and Astral Plains, but are capable of affecting those who inhabit the Physical World.

Once a person has been "tagged" by one of these babies, the one(s) who tagged them will always have their location while in the Spirit World, as well as a backdoor into their mind and soul. All Spiritual Mana wielding Gifted are familiar with Spirit Tags, as being able to use Spiritual Mana, regardless of the form, usually means that the user in question has already been tagged, themselves. By the Spirit King of their element in the case of Elementalists, their Bonded Spirit for Spirit Charmers, their Contracted Spirit(s) for Summoners, or their… well… mate, for lack of a better word, with Covenanters.

Shaking my head to clear away those thoughts I start searching from the ground while Celaeno searches from the air. "Hey Giro! I found the place!" I faintly hear Celaeno call from the other side of the warehouse district after about an hour of searching, catching my attention as my new fox ears perk up. Smirking, I start navigating my way over to where Celaeno is. After joining up with Celaeno, she lifted off the ground and grabbed me by the shoulders, giving me a lift to an open window. Slipping into the window, I help Celaeno through as well and we then make our way back down to ground level.

Once we were on ground level, I smirked a bit when I saw Roman Torchwich, obviously in the middle of planning a heist of some sort, though I was a bit surprised to see some Faunus whom he seems to be acting rather friendly towards. Given how he talks and acts about and around the White Fang in the series proper, I'd half-expected the guy to be quite blatantly racist towards the Faunus. Well, glad to be proven wrong; gives me incentive to get him and Neo out from under Cinder's, and Salem's by extension, thumb. Didn't see the Bitch Bishop herself, though. Must still be in the middle of consolidating her alliance with that murdering bastard, Taurus.

Oh well, I can work with this. Waving Celaeno over, I smirk a little. "Let's tag Mr. Roman Candle over there," I say simply.

"Not arguing, but why?" Celaeno asks in reply, even as she readies her Spirit Tag. "I thought the guy was a smug, racist bastard who only cared about survival?"

"I'm starting to think matchhead's gripe is more the White Fang itself and not the Faunus," I comment, motioning to the Faunus he's interacting with. "We're seeing him interact with Faunus right now, not a White Fang uniform in sight, and I'd dare say the guy looks downright comfortable right now."

Celaeno takes a look at Torchwich and whoever the Faunus chick he was talking with (she had a cat tail and was dressed like a biker chick, so rather easy to figure out her gender) was, and obviously found herself agreeing with me, cause I heard her say "point granted" even as she tagged Roman. "Where's Cinder, though? I don't see her at all."

"Me neither. I imagine she's wherever the hell Taurus and his murderous zealots are camped, in the middle of consolidating her alliance with them," I shrug as we make our way back up to the open window so we can make our exit and return to my physical body. "All we can really do right now is tag Roman so we can keep track of him and Neo - we both know he's never far from the ice cream bitch - and wait for Cinder to show up in Vale proper."

-in the physical world, no P.o.V.-

Roman Torchwich, renowned criminal mastermind, idly scratched at his nose, the only indication he gave to a sudden, inexplicable urge to sneeze.

The Faunus he was talking with obviously noticed, as she raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, Roman?"

"Not sure, Julius," he replies. "Feels like someone's talking about me and those White Fang nut jobs for whatever reason."

"Weird. I know the group they've got stationed here in Northern Saunus have been growing more… _enthusiastic_ … about the possibility of fighting in their raids than others, but come on, Roman," the Faunus, Julius, replies. "Even if you're a wanted man in three of four of the Kingdoms, it's pretty much an open secret among law enforcement world wide that you've always been a supporter of the more peaceful Faunus Rights movements. It would take something straight out of a fairytale to get _you_ , of all people, to work with the White Fang as it's been operating since five years ago."

At Roman's side, Neopolitan nodded her head in agreement. No one in the warehouse acknowledged a gust of wind coming from the upper levels.

* * *

 **Spice: And this chapter is finally done! I really need to get back into a better work ethic for writing for these stories of mine, good lord.**

 **ELFI: to anyone curious, the name of the Faunus Roman is seen conversing with at the end of the chapter is a reference to Armored Core 4 Answer.**

 **Spice: Don't expect her to show up much more beyond little cameos. Also, my thoughts on why Roman is such a dick around the White Fang. Dude's a thief, only thing that those types listen to is their own moral compass. I personally think that Roman isn't so much racist towards as he is against the way the White Fang operates under Sienna's leadership. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter you guys, and until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001, signing out.**


End file.
